With their recent turnaround, the Oakland Raiders have established themselves as one of the hottest franchises in the National Football League. Thanks to head coach Jack Del Rio and rising star quarterback Derek Carr, the Raiders made their first playoff appearance since 2002 last season, finishing with a 12-4 record.
While they’re set to leave Oakland soon, the Raiders faithful in Northern California are diehard fans who will likely follow their beloved franchise into the deserts of Nevada and the city of sin, Las Vegas, as early as 2019. They also stay up to date on the personal lives of their team’s superstars through Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
We took a look at which players have the most followers, and what types of content they’re posting on social media when they’re not making Oakland proud on the field.
Digital Raider Nation
He wasn’t a member of the Oakland Raiders, or even playing in the NFL last season, but you can’t deny the popularity of Marshawn Lynch. The bruising running back notably denied the chance by Pete Carroll to run in a likely touchdown in the 2014 Super Bowl, maximized his celebrity off and online. Just as he’s accumulated yards with ease on the field, he’s accumulated fans off the field, with over 3.7 million total followers on the networks we examined.
Playing second fiddle to Lynch is the man under center, quarterback Derek Carr. With a combined 1.2 million followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, Carr has fewer combined followers than Lynch on Instagram or Facebook individually. This doesn’t discourage Carr from giving you a look behind the scenes – or sharing his love for the U.S. men’s national soccer team.
With just slightly more than half the followers of his delivery mechanism, wide receiver Amari Cooper comes in fourth among the most followed Raiders. The fourth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, Cooper immediately turned his college success at Alabama into professional accolades. He’s made the Pro Bowl twice in his first two seasons and would hope to be there for a third consecutive year. While Cooper’s Instagram account features many of his impressive grabs, plucking footballs out of the air with ease, he also used it to share his summer reading list.
Wide receiver Michael Crabtree and Linebacker Bruce Irvin round out the top 5 most followed Oakland Raiders on social media. While Crabtree comes in third overall, he ranks behind his quarterback in Instagram and Facebook followers. In fact, he has zero posts on Instagram, despite having over 370,000 followers awaiting his first upload. As far as Irvin’s Instagram account is concerned, shouldn’t he have more followers considering he posts photos of his dog?
Social Black & Silver
You may not have anywhere near the number of followers of Crabtree and Irvin, and couldn’t even dream of touching Lynch’s totals, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play the part. Outfit yourself with officially licensed NFL and Oakland Raiders merchandise and apparel at Fanatics.com.
Methodology
For this project, we scraped the social metrics from each player’s respective Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. All measures (likes and followers) were collected and verified on Sept. 6, 2017.
Sources
- https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/L/LyncMa00.htm
- https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CoopAm00.htm
- https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/rai/index.htm
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/sports/football/nfl-oakland-raiders-las-vegas.html?mcubz=0&_r=0
- http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000467707/article/seahawks-pete-carroll-explains-illfated-call-in-super-bowl-xlix
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BG8AqfCJBxv/?hl=en&taken-by=derekcarrqb
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BOoQSjAFRrJ/?hl=en&taken-by=amaricooper9
