What Now?...
What Now?...
The recent firing of Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron has caused me to wonder what is next for the Raiders. They have a better record than we do at 3-6 and Jauron has a better pedigree and more respect throughout the league than Cable does. If he is ‘fire-able’, why isn’t Cable? While pondering this, I received an e-mail from on of my more avid readers “Charles”. This letter contained some interesting questions about what to expect for the rest of the season, will the entire coaching staff be fired and does Al Davis make all of the draft day decisions by himself. All good questions and the following is my take on these questions along with some other ideas I’ve been mulling over.
His first question was: ” What do you expect to see from the Raiders with seven games remaining?”
For the remainder of the year I expect more of the same from the team. Poor game planning, bad coaching decisions, dropped passes and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. We have a legitimate chance to win no more than two games. Those are Washington and Cleveland. Washington is in almost as much turmoil as we are and Cleveland may be the only team that has an offense more inept than our own. Now this doesn’t mean that winning any of the others would be impossible, just highly unlikely given the current state of the team.
This being said, it doesn't mean we WILL win; it only means that we SHOULD win those two games. A lot of factors will influence this. Not the least of which is, who will be the QB? It appears as though it’s Gradkowski…for now. This is good because if it were Russell, we would lose...period. This isn’t rocket science; it’s football 101. Turnovers, inefficiency and poor reads at the line of scrimmage are game killers and Jamarcus Russell is a turnover machine, the captain of inefficiency and can’t read the writing on the wall, much less something as complicated as an NFL defense! Let’s be clear, Gradkowski is not the long-term answer. He is a stopgap measure at best. I think the best answer at QB in the here and now is to keep Russell on the bench and allow Grad and Frye compete for the starting job. Long term we should cut Russell. I would normally say trade him, but no one wants him and we wouldn’t get anything for him. At this point, if some one offered us a 1974 Ford Pinto, two tic-tacs and a Pet Rock…I’d jump on it! Let’s dump this guy, cut our losses and move on.
His next question was: “Do you think there will be a complete coaching staff turn over for next season?”
As for a total coaching turnover, I don't know. Only Mr. Davis knows that. I would definitely like to see him make a head coaching change along with some of the position coaches. The WR play has been terrible. It’s not a talent issue, it is clear that the fundamentals are not being taught. The receivers, with the exception of the TEs, are all making mental mistakes and bad reads. They're not using good technique when catching the ball. This bad receiver play is a direct result of poor coaching by Sanjay Lal. I would like to see us keep John Marshall because he has made some drastic improvement in the defense as a whole, but D-line coach Dwain Board should be let go. He has a LOT of talent to work with, yet we're still near the bottom of the league rankings in run defense and sacks. He was a good player, but clearly not a very good coach. However, for once I'd like to see Mr. Davis decide on a head coach, hire him and then let HIM hire the rest of the staff. The Raiders are one of only 3 teams that don't allow the head coach to pick his own staff. The others are the Redskins and Cowboys. It is not a coincidence that these three teams have not won a playoff game in FOREVER. Everyone has a style all their own. When you force a coach to take on the style of some one else, you are forcing them to change who they are. I’m not saying that if Cable, Kiffin or Turner had been allowed to hire their own staff that they would have been successful. I’m only saying that they would have been given a much better chance to win. Not only that, you can't expect the staff or the players to respect some one that has absolutely no control over his own staff. Forcing people into situations like this is what leads to Randy Hansen type problems.
His last question was: ”Does Al Davis make all the draft decisions on his own?”
I don't know if Mr. Davis makes all the drafting decisions on his own or not. All the analysts say he does and it certainly seems that way. He drafted Russell against the wishes of the head coach at the time Lane Kiffin. He took Darius Heyward-Bey leaving B.J. Raji on board for the Packers to take all the while we needed a DT, not a WR to improve the team. When you watch the scouting combine, he's sitting in the same spot every year...by himself. He has a clipboard and a stopwatch. I'm sure that he discusses these decisions with some trusted insiders and "football people". If he does, he's getting bad advice, listening to the wrong people or just doesn't care what they say because it doesn't seem to translate to the field. He continues to baffle the experts and hurt the team with the picks that are made. I hope he does what he alluded to in an interview last year and hires a REAL GM. Not another John Herrera type lackey/yes-man; a real general manager that has experience and a history of success. If he actually does this, he must get out of the way and let them run the show. I don’t see that happening, but it’s the only way we can improve the team and start winning on a regular basis.
The bottom line is that what Mr. Davis is doing now isn't working...that's obvious to you and me but clearly it's not to him. It’s not working with coaches, players or fans. Until he realizes this, the status quo will not change and the team will continue to lose, fans will stay home, merchandise sales will plummet, network black-outs will go on, free agents and quality coaches will not sign and the once great Oakland Raiders will carry on as the laughing stock of the league.
Just one coach’s take.
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