NFL Oakland Raiders: Who Isn't a Head Coaching Candidate?

A couple of news items around the NFL in recent weeks have Oakland Raiders fans scratching their collective skull masks. Or in the very least, pacing back and forth in the Black Hole, with serious consternation.

First, on January 14th, the St. Louis Rams announced that they hired Jeff Fisher as the team’s head coach, 12 days after the firing of Steve Spagnuolo.

Then, on Saturday, it was reported that the Miami Dolphins chose former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Joe Philbin to be their next head coach, after a three-week selection process, since season’s end.

Meanwhile, the Raiders have seemingly gone up and down the entire head-coaching replacements aisle at the NFL superstore and not come up with a leading candidate to replace Hue Jackson, who was fired on January 10th. Raider Nation has been holding its breath, wondering when new general manager Reggie McKenzie will hire a new head coach. And who will it be?

Granted, the Raiders have only been formally interviewing for a little over 10 days. But the list of potential, rumored and actual candidates for the head coaching vacancy is long enough to make fans wonder when the search will ever end?

According to CSN BayArea, so far in this arduous process, the Raiders have been linked to no fewer than 13 coaching names: Denver defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, Miami interim coach Todd Bowles, Green Bay defensive coordinator Dom Capers, New Orleans offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr., Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, former Raider head coach Jon Gruden, Denver offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, Philadelphia offensive coordinator Marty Mornhingweg, Packers assistant head coach Winston Moss, Packers safeties coach Darren Perry, Philbin and Chicago offensive coordinator Mike Tice.

The fact that no single individual has stood out enough to be publicly a leading candidate is a bit unfortunate—and perplexing. But it speaks to McKenzie’s desire to be thorough and not rash about this process.

Had he selected somebody by now, there’d be possible scrutiny regarding the celerity of his implementation of a new head coach and the subsequent personnel moves thereafter. So it’s imperative that McKenzie be as deliberate as he needs to be. It reinforces the seriousness of this decision.

However, it still doesn’t diminish the feeling that the Raiders are a bit lost so far this offseason. The mere fact that rumors swirl regarding the (im)possibility of Gruden as a viable candidate is a testament to how out of control the search is about to become.

Many thought that McKenzie would easily—and rapidly—choose one of his ex-coworkers from the Green Bay coaching staff, particularly Moss. But each of those names has come and gone. And the list of the nominees continues to dwindle—Philbin signs on with Miami and McCoy pulled out of contention last week, too.

With such an array of contenders, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly which direction the Raiders are going. No one man has been announced as a clear-cut favorite. Which might be a good thing internally. But fans clearly would like to know where Oakland is leaning toward. And the Raiders not showing their cards leaves some candidates waiting in the cold, as well.

Additionally, given that the Senior Bowl takes place next week, one would expect some urgency in having a coaching staff to send to evaluate the competing college players.

Still, maybe it’s a good sign that all of this is taking so long. The Raiders under Al Davis historically made some brash head coaching decisions, even if it took a long time (see the hiring process of Tom Cable.)

It’s possible that McKenzie is truly going against the grain of tradition in Oakland by being meticulous about this course of action. Given the fact that the Raiders have had six head coaches in the past 10 seasons, maybe adding a few more candidates to be the new one isn’t so bad.

Is Herm Edwards or Jim Fassel available for an interview?

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