Bill Callahan Comes Full Circle, Raiders Still Stuck In First Gear

Unless you count the Norv Turner era as respectable, the last, best hope the Raiders had at success was when Bill Callahan was Head Coach.  I know that is a tough pill for many Raider fans to swallow but show me a better offensive line coach the Raiders have had since.

Art Shell?  Ok, maybe 20 years ago but his hire was a pretty bad thud when he signed on for a second tour of duty.

Callahan, as you may recall, got it done with the offensive line.  If not for Barrett Robbins losing his marbles, setting the wrong tone on the eve of a Super Bowl, who knows what could have been different about the Bucs/Gruden game of retribution.

Unfortunately, Callahan also made a ton of errors which tarnished his time with the Raiders.  Much like Tom Cable started out doing great as offensive line coach and is now collapsing like a ton of bricks.

It so happens Bill Callahan has rehabilitated himself in the NFL and is doing just fine as offensive line coach of the New York Jets.  How does the O-Line opening things up for the backs to run for over 300 yards against the Oakland Raiders sound as far as evidence?

So we have to ask ourselves, if Bill Callahan can fix the Jets offensive line, why can't the Raiders fix their own offensive line?

Khalif Barnes, playing for the first time as a right tackle, gave up 2 sacks against the Jets.

Is Cornell Green any better?  No, he pretty much is no help.

Langston Walker is a retread, not expected to offer much help either.

What is a retread? A guy who could not make another team's roster.  In the case of Langston Walker, he was willfully allowed to leave the Raiders, go to another team and then come back.  So he is a double retread.  He's not a solution.

So the useless retread offensive line crew of the Raiders consists of Erik Pears, Kalif Barnes, Copper Carlise, Cornell Green and guys that are just average like Chris Morris and Samson Satele.

Then at the bottom of that heap is Paul McQuistan.  He is so useless that he does not even get mentioned as a possibility to replace Robert Gallery when he  was lost to injury.  Why is McQuistan even on the roster if he serves no function?  If he is injured, then put him on IR to make room for a guy who can help the team.

Strangely enough, the only guy who has really stood out on the line is Robert Gallery, the one time bust who has managed to salvage his NFL career.  We also have to give left tackle Mario Henderson his due as another guy who is doing better than everyone around him.  He has not emerged as a rock but maybe with better players helping out, he will get there.

The reasons why the Raiders are woeful offensively has to start with the line.

The offensive line has been neglected.  You would think with such a large investment in your QB the next logical step would be to want to protect that investment.

This hasn't happened over the course of several seasons, with lamers being claimed off waivers, a revolving door of other teams' retreads being installed.

So this tells us Al Davis is more concerned with finding defensive players that he wrongly believes will fit in with his man to man system rather than building a credible offensive line.

This is the same trail of errors associated with overpaying guys like DeAngelo Hall, Gibril Wilson and whatever other guys not pulling their weight.  Not a single established offensive lineman has been brought in to compete for a job.

Until there are better offensive lineman brought in to stabilize the protection, the passing game will suffer.

It has been pointed out a few times by lots of people, Jamarcus Russell (or whoever is playing QB for the Raiders) does not have 7-8 seconds to throw.

Taking your drop (any more than 3 steps) is tough when your protection breaks down almost immediately.

So we're back to handing the ball off to Fargas every down but that is what happened in 2006 (until he gets hurt again).