the Art Shell era

[magnus]

So now what?

It seems, I guess, that there's a requisite for a line coach to be a head coach in the NFL.

At any rate, this team has its work cut out for itself. So what do they do? Last to hire a coach, turned down by half the league's coaches, Senior Bowl is over so they won't be in touch with the majority of the available assistants until now.

But with Jimmy Raye still aboard, and assuming he stays, they have an allright offensive mind. I would try to upgrade from John Shoop for now; I'd also do my damndest to keep Rob Ryan on board as DC. You get Biletnikoff as part of the deal, and he was here with Shell last time, which isn't a bad situation at all.

Eric Mangini has done pretty well, BTW, pulling from some less usual names -getting Bryan Cox as what amounts to as an intern, and pulling Jim Herrmann from Michigan to be LBs coach; I also noticed that NO got Michigan's OC Terry Malone as their TEs coach, so I expect Michigan to be hurting some.




BTW - Ken Whisenhunt wanted full control - which I thought was ballsy, and totally stupid. Either you want to be there or not, but don't fuck it up asking for something that's not going to happen. Al Davis or not, brand new coaches shouldn't have GM responsibility, and I don't believe coaches should have complete control anyway. Who's succeeded with that authority, other than Bill Walsh?

Hmm. Never put this together before - Skip Peete coached with John Fox at U of Pittsburgh.




Anyway - personnel.

maybe Shell will finally be the one to let Charles Woodson walk. He should, maybe.

What about Kerry Collins? For now, it might be best to keep him, but I think it's time to either see what else Tuiasosopo can do as an athlete or move on.

They have backs - Jordan had 1500+ all purpose yards in a crappy year. They have a hell of a right side of the line, but could upgrade on Barry Sims and stopgap Brad Badger. They could've been somewhat powerful if they'd not been behind so much, and Jordan should provide them with some benefit this year if they set the pace of the game. It'd also take pressure off their line, who gave up 45 sacks.

Looks like the D is talent-poor, though - aside from Kirk Morrison, Stuart Schweigert (who I've not seen enough to call good), and Derrick Burgess, they don't have much young talent. Nnamdi Asomugha and Fabian Washington might be allright as corners, but they could use some veteran expertise there, to play nickel if nothing else.



So what do they do with their cap space? Not much in their own FAs worth keeping; what do you think they should do with that 6th overall pick?

 

[Coops Greatest Fan]

I'll just make a couple of comments:

First of all, the only other person even offered a contract with the Raiders was Petrino. NO ONE else was given an offer. Petrino was offered it 3 times. If Al had gone with whom he thought he'd actually hire, Shell would have been in there a couple of weeks ago!

Second: 3 current Raider coaches are on contract and will be retained - Rob Ryan included. He's a big one I wanted to keep as well as the ST's coach. John Walsh is coming onboard as well as another coach which I am not allowed to name at this time.

Third: I agree with you about Whisenhunt...He wanted the control and Al Davis will never give that to coaches up to the day he passes.

Fourth: Woodson is a goner....if he hadn't been injured last season, I would say he'd be back with the team. Unless he's willing to take a cut in pay, then he's gone.

Kerry Collins will be back only if he decides to restructure. 6 Million is what he's scheduled to make next season and I'm not seeing the Raiders paying him that much. It pissed me off when Turner said he was going to go with Tui the last couple of games, then pulled him and put Collins back in. Not like we were in the hunt for any playoffs. What better time would it have been than to get Tui some game playing time. Walters was injured most of the season, so we wouldn't have seen him get any playing time. Keeping Tui where he's at right now is a waste.....Get some young blood in as QB.

Jordan will be back strong next year. With a new coach whose specialty is the offense, I have no doubt that the O-Line will improve (how can it get worse?).

The D took some hits last year and a lot of guys who weren't starters had to step up and become the starters. I saw an improvement game by game, so even if we get a lot of the original starters back, we'll have a good group of backups as well.

Fifth: Getting players re-signed and restructured will be the trick in getting the salary cap where it needs to be. We do have some strong free agents worth keeping, so it'll be interesting as to whom they keep and whom they let go. Those let go will be picked up by other teams, I have no doubt.

I don't keep up with draft picks and everything, so I can't really say whom I think the Raiders should pick - as long as they're going to contribute to the team, I'm up for pretty much anyone.

 

[Black&Blue]

Wisenhust shouldn't have even interviewed for the job. He's in a great spot right now, and I'm certain that he will find a much more suitable opening in '07.

The QB situation is a mystery. I think Tui has shown that he doesn't have an NFL quality arm, so I don't think that you build something great with him as your starter. For the better part of 2005, Collins was actually playing quite well. I think he can run a team for at least another year, productively, so I see him starting in 2006.

I called Jordan overrated before the season, but he impressed me during the few Oakland games I watched. He's a good all-purpose back. IMO, they need to find a better change-up runner for next year. Fargas has some talent, but he wouldn't excite me as a starter.


On defense, time to cut the dead weight, especially up front. Washington is almost useless at this point. While Sapp played better after moving back to DT, I think it's obvious that he won't give you what he had four years ago. Find some more explosive athletes to who can play linebacker. It was a very dry unit in 2005. The DB's seem very limited in their abilities. Drafting Washington in the first round was a stretch, but I think he can be a good playmaking corner - just don't expect him to be very good in run support.



All in all, I think this can be an okay team in 2006, if they wanted to, but they'll definately have some decisions to make to be any good beyond that. Too bad they play in the AFC West.

 

[magnus]

I dunno. The Raiders aren't ideal like, say, getting the KC job, but they're not that bad an organization and they have talent on offense, so Whisenhunt should've talked to a team interested in him, I don't blame him for that. As an offensive guy, getting Moss, Jordan, and the others would be enticing. He has no real reason to ask for so much say in that org., not at all.

 

[Collin]

He has no real reason to ask for so much say in that org., not at all.

That's his reason, and it's a pretty obvious one. I don't see why anyone not desperate for a job would accept a head coaching position in Oakland without the assurance that you would be in charge of your own decisions.

 

[Village Idiot]

rofl

 

[magnus]

That's his reason, and it's a pretty obvious one. I don't see why anyone not desperate for a job would accept a head coaching position in Oakland without the assurance that you would be in charge of your own decisions.

I'd already said, Al Davis aside, so I don't really think it's something to point out as if no one thought of it. Whisenhunt has no standing to ask for GM standing since hardly anyone in the league has it, and certainly no first year coaches.

 

[Collin]

First time head coaches have had it in the past, but you're right that it's becoming more rare for anyone to have both jobs. That said, Al Davis is plenty reason enough to demand that or to not accept the job.

 

[magnus]

First time head coaches have had it in the past, but you're right that it's becoming more rare for anyone to have both jobs. That said, Al Davis is plenty reason enough to demand that or to not accept the job.

so therefore you either don't want the job, or you're being way too ridiculous to ask for such a thing.

Personally, I don't feel a huge hatred for Davis. He's made awful decisions with coaches, and I don't think that falsely giving that coach more responsibility would fare that coach any better in the long term of getting fired or not fired. It'd probably cost him more, and in two of the more recent GM/HC dualities, Sherman got fired after one bad year after getting his GM status stripped; I assume that Holmgren probably would've been fired at 6-10 or worse.

To me, demanding the GM role isn't simply too much for a coach, it's also a sign you don't want to work in conjunction with others. if Whisenhunt pulls this again next year, he'll be Tim Lewis-ing himself out of a chance.

 

[Black&Blue]

I'm not qualified to call the Raiders a bad organization, or a good one. But for the second time in three years, they've had trouble finding a head coach. Even a great offensive mind such as Mike Martz, with all of Oakland's offensive talent available, would rather take an OC job than work under Al Davis. So there are certainly some head-scratching events that have taken place, and it makes me wonder just how desireable of a job was at stake.