It's really easy to pile on Al Davis right now. I'm fighting the urge to go down that route myself. Let's not absolve everyone else of blame here.
If you take a head coaching job under Al Davis, you know what the situation is going to be. You coach the players on the field. If the players fail, you'll ultimately get fired, but you take the experience and move on.
You're not going to pick the players. You're not going to pick all of the coaches. You're not going to have complete say on anything.
Someone like Lane Kiffin takes this job to prepare himself for future employment. There's very little chance of success, but you know that going in.
To pretend Kiffin is 100 percent clean here is naïve.
Kiffin either was or wasn't asked to resign over the offseason. He either did or didn't refuse, depending on whether or not you believe he was ever asked.
Since he was or wasn't asked to resign, while I have no doubt that he's been doing his best on the field to coach the team he was given, he has taken every chance to throw daggers at his owner.
He's questioned the talent level of his team publicly. He's openly mocked the front office. He's questioned his own coaching staff. From a PR standpoint, he's been a nightmare.
Given that a decent chunk of the job of a head coach is to be the face and voice of an organization, Kiffin has generally been a terrible employee since before the draft.
So, Kiffin deserved to be fired. He shares some of the blame.
But the Raiders' situation, every problem they've faced since they lost the Super Bowl back in 2002, can be traced back to an erratic, and perhaps completely insane, owner.
Certainly an out-of-touch owner, anyway.
Al Davis took a team that needed rebuilding and spent like it was a team ready to compete for a Super Bowl. He not only spent a ridiculous $70 million on DeAngelo Hall, but gave up a high 2008 draft pick (second-rounder) and an additional 2009 draft pick.
Gibril Wilson is a great player, but another $39 million for him? $40 million in guaranteed money to fix a secondary that, if you stack it up against the problems the Raiders had on offense last season, really shouldn't have been a priority?
Put it this way: If you're a bad team, and the 2007 Raiders were a bad team, you need to build through the draft. Because of Al Davis' questionable moves, they went into the 2008 draft with only five picks.
And only one pick in the first three rounds!
Al Davis is a victim of his own ego. He believes in the players he picks. He believes in them to a fault. He refuses to admit that he's wrong on players. He refuses to admit that someone else would do a better job building his team.
He refuses to relinquish control, even though his judgment has been significantly more and more questionable as the years have gone by.
He goes through coaches like they're going out of style, because he believes he's giving them championship talent. To admit he's giving them four-win talent would be admitting that the players he hand-picked aren't good enough. So when the team wins four games, he fires the coach.
When the next coach only wins four games, he fires him.
If only he could find a good head coach, right?
Of course, that in and of itself is part of the problem. No qualified head coach would work for Al Davis. Under any circumstances.
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3 months ago
Do you think this debacle is going to look bad on Lane Kiffin's resume? Yeah, he couldn't control who Davis put on the roster and even Tom Landry would have been hard pressed to get these guys into the playoffs, but you're dead on when you say that Kiffin took every chance to take potshots at the front office. Will that hurt him when he goes looking for another job?
from 3 months ago
I do think it's going to hurt. I don't think he came out of this looking very good.
My guess, he'll end up coaching in college somewhere. Long enough that everyone will forget that he was partly to blame for Oakland. By the time he interviews for another NFL head coaching job, people will only remember how awful the front office was in Oakland and they'll hope he becomes the next Mike Shanahan...
3 months ago
I agree with some, i disagree with most. We haven't seen what Javon Walker can do yet so we wont make judgments on him. Id rather they sit him out and rest, then him re injuring something more severe. Tommy Kelly was a great sign and im glad we did it, i dont know what this defensive front would be without him. And if we didnt give him that much money he would have gone somewhere else. As far as Gibril Wilson, he's been more then what Ive expected, and is playing like a top safety. Now.... D-Hall.... 70mill? If he continues to play the way he has, then without a doubt this will be Davis's biggest mistake. He has been terrible and is single handly losing us ball games, i hate to say it but its the truth...we might be better without him. But im anxious to see this team next week, I think the entire NFL is. If they come out and beat NO, that will be something special. The best way to shut people up is to win football games
In Davis we trust
from 3 months ago
I'm concede Tommy Kelly, even though he could have been had for far less money (nobody, and I mean NOBODY was going to pay him that much...and if he was going to leave unless the Raiders gave him a king's ransom, then they should have let him go...good teams don't keep guys who don't want to be there).
The defensive secondary was not a problem last year. They didn't need to spend money, and especially draft picks, to improve it. They should have spent money and draft picks on fixing the real problems, their run defense and their passing offense.
Al Davis firmly believes he has a 12 win team. Maybe you agree. I'm pretty sure that just about everyone not wearing silver in black disagrees with you both...and the results speak for themselves.
Until Al puts someone else in charge, the Raiders will be terrible every year. Every single year.
3 months ago
I agree with you all the way. Al Davis is like a cancer to the Oakland Raiders. He is the main reason that the Raiders never get better. He is constantly rebuilding the team by hiring puppet head coaches and not giving them any time to develop a system. As long as Davis remains in control of this team, they won't have another winning season, much less a championship.
from 3 months ago
Kiffin isn't completely blameless though...
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