Stability at the Head Coaching Position: It Is What Oakland Needs

For all the arguments regarding Tom Cable and why he should be let go, probably his best pull for him right now, is the one the Raiders have sorely needed since Tom Flores left after his 1987 season in Los Angeles.

Stability.

Oakland, since the 2002 Super Bowl, has had a bad habit of rotating in head coaches like a normal person might tune up his car. Without fail, coaches are brought in, make a few modifications, drop and/or add players, and then it all changes again, with a new coach.

For the fans of the Raiders, you know the names. Going from Flores, you had Shanahan, Shell, White, Bugel, Gruden, Callahan, Turner, Shell again, Kiffin, and now Cable.

From 1969 to 1987, the Raiders would use two head coaches, John Madden and Tom Flores. The combination would result in three Super Bowls, a number of AFC championship games and Hall of Famers.

Since Flores' departure, the longest coach to last was Art Shell, at six years. He also held the second-shortest stint as a head coach, just ahead of Red Conkright's nine-game disaster in 1962.

Both Bill Callahan and Norv Turner had 32-game stints to work with, Bill's first season led to a Super Bowl berth with Jon Gruden's hands all over the charts.

The two problems that this caused, was facing Jon in the playoffs and with the following season, the Raiders that were assembled all grew old in a hurry.

By the time Callahan had made the statement about the team on National Television, the damage was done, ushering in Norv Turner.

Norv ran into similar problems, trying to rebuild a team as the old guard was either put out to pasture, sent packing, or forced to help the younger generations play a new-style of football.

Gone were the likes of Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, Rich Gannon, Rod Woodson, etc.

The results were messy. Norv compiling a record of 9-23 didn't impress anyone...but at least the directions to the future were supposed to be clear.

Then someone told Al Davis to bring in Art Shell.

Right now, the Raiders came off a season that saw them win in Pittsburgh. They also won in Denver. They upset the Eagles in Oakland, won in Kansas City, and upset the Bengals. Those Eagles and Bengals both would make it to the playoffs.

Oakland, at least is moving in the right direction again.

Al, don't go out and replace him with a copy of Art Shell. You made that mistake before....it's time to learn from it.

Keep Tom Cable, if anything for the stability....let him finish the task he set out to do and get this team back to the playoffs in 2010.