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It's not too often that an NFL team hits on two franchise cornerstones in the same draft, but that's what the Oakland Raiders did in 2014, when they drafted star pass-rusher Khalil Mack in the first round and quarterback Derek Carr in the second. Mack quickly became one of the best pass-rushers in the league. Carr flashed promise as a rookie, took a step forward in his second season and broke out as an MVP candidate in his third year.

Both players will likely be Raiders for a long, long time. General manager Reggie McKenzie told CSN Bay Area that it's a high priority to keep both players and hinted that extensions may be coming soon for both players.

"The good thing is we do have time, but I'm not the type to wait until the last minute," McKenzie said. "Those two guys are not only great players but they are great men. They are true Raiders and I want to make sure we do the best that we can to make sure that they stay Raiders."

The 2017 season is the final year of Carr's rookie contract while Mack technically has two seasons left on his initial deal, assuming the Raiders pick up his fifth-year option. They are both eligible for contract extensions this offseason and should command deals at or near the top of the market at their respective positions, based on their performance to date. (It's entirely possible that Mack signs the largest contract ever for a defensive player, surpassing the deal signed by Von Miller last offseason.)

Giving those players significant raises will obviously affect how the Raiders are able to build out the rest of their roster. We saw this principle at work with the Seahawks, who created one of the deepest rosters in the NFL while Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas were all being severely underpaid by their rookie deals. Once they all signed for salaries that better represented their skill level, the rest of the Seattle roster thinned out a bit. That's what makes it important that the Raiders have kept their cap sheet clean over the last few years. They can afford massive new contracts for their starts without immediately having to make cuts elsewhere.

"Hopefully it won't beat up the roster that much," McKenzie said. "You try to do the best that you can to work the contracts so you can keep as many good players as possible. But, we all know that you cannot have a roster of a lot of multimillion dollar players. That's just not the way this system works. So, we're just going to have to continue to strive to get good players for the lesser amount. I mean, it's just the way it is. Our quarterback is going to command a high dollar. Khalil's going to command a high dollar. So, we'll work around it. But we don't feel, at this point, threatened by it."