Oakland Raiders: The Second Worst Coaching Staff In Four Years

By that I mean that right now, on paper, the Raiders coaching staff looks nearly as bad as the 2006 disaster was. I'm not saying that Oakland will end the season with barely two wins, or trail the league in total offense and look totally inept on the sidelines.

I mean, it could turn out like that, but I'm hoping it doesn't.  

It's not like they've had to settle for an offensive line coach whose basically the only guy who really wanted the job, and left it until really late to hire him. Well, they did, but at least Tom Cable showed last year that he can do a good job coaching, play calling, and can command a presence in the locker room.

And it's not like they had to get an offensive coordinator who has been running a bed n' breakfast for the last couple of years. No, instead of Tom Walsh, Cable has chosen Ted Tollner to be his offensive coordinator. Now this is a guy who led the Lions to a rank of 27 in total offense back in 2005—his last stint as an offensive coordinator. Since then, he’s been working as an assistant in San Francisco, apparently assisting with the play calling to some extent.  

The biggest problem that Oakland are going to have with the change is not that Tollner will be a bad coordinator, but that he will install a new offensive system that JaMarcus Russell could struggle to learn.

While a more vertical attack could suit his talents, Oakland’s best chances of survival are to establish a running game. They have a potentially nasty trio of backs in Fargas, Bush, and McFadden. The Raider offensive line was solid last year until Cable was promoted, a common occurence that happens when their position coach moves up. If they can get back to that, Oakland offense could possibly last the transition.

Whatever happens on offense this year, I guarantee that Oakland is going to struggle defensively this year, for a number of reasons.

- Their new defensive coordinator John Marshall does not have a reputation for installing schemes which fool the opposition and help out their own players. 

- Oakland’s stud cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha will sit out training camp if Oakland do tag him, if not he won’t return.

- Oakland lacks a force in the middle to stop the run.

If Oakland is going to move forward, their defense will need to improve. At this point, I don’t have much faith in John Marshall as a defensive coordinator. It is yet to be seen what he can do on the defensive side of the ball. There need to be personnel changes including at the middle linebacker spot.

Kirk Morrison is a great linebacker, but he’s more suited on the outside. Ideally, I’d like to see Oakland take the big guy from USC to secure the middle and put Kirk back on the outside. Or instead, they could bring in better guys on the line if they felt that was a better option.  

Of course, there are a lot of things Oakland can do to improve their defense.

The most important move they have to make is to lock up Nnamdi Asomugha.  Asomugha gives the defense more options and shuts down one side of the field, and no one wants to see him leave.

Of course, all these options mean nothing if the defensive system is just going to be simple, predictable and keep defense moving backwards.

Oakland hasn't exactly had the first pick out of teams in terms of their coaching staff.

The problems that the Raiders had in '06 were reportedly a result of the coaching staff being out of touch with the players. If Tom Cable can continue what he started last year, then the Raiders have a good chance to improve. However, if the staff that has been hired come in and install either outdated schemes or over-complicated systems, it doesn’t look good for the Raiders to move forward.