There are a few elements to this rivalry most have been mentioned already but the big one I have not seen here yet. It really began with Al Davis, he was the AFL commissioner before the merger, so the NFL team just across the bay was there to be disliked as the NFL would shit on the new league any chance they got. Even before the merger we would play them in preseason activities and the he Raiders as part of the AFL as the upstart league, played those games all out even though they didn’t mean anything just because they had something to prove.
It’s way too early to decide anything. The QB position is difficult, you rarely see a rookie light it up there first year and the ones that do usually fall into a sophomore jinx. Peyton Manning was 3-13 with a 72 QB rating his first season where he played and practiced as QB1 the whole year. AOC has played 4 games through a lot of turmoil. His positives are he is smart, resilient, accurate with the football and his teammates respect him. His negatives are he’s a rookie so he’s not getting through his progressions, he’s not mobile and he lacks pocket awareness. I think he can develop but we will see. The people who are really negative on him are obsessed with having a mobile athletic QB. It’s what’s in vogue at the moment but everyone forgets that the mobile QBs all become pocket passes in a few years out of necessity. They get the crap beat out them the first few seasons and end up hurt. I’d rather have the guy who starts as a pocket QB, he will develop faster because he has to.