Well, so much for continuity...It was reported late last night that the Oakland Raiders had reached out and offered current Houston Texans' quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp their offensive coordinator position. It was reported earlier today by NFL Network's Jason La Canfora that Knapp accepted the job offer.The move makes sense as Knapp and head coach Dennis Allen worked together for two years with the Atlanta Falcons in the mid 2000s. The trend of Reggie McKenzie and Dennis Allen finding "their guys", rather than inheriting someone else's, continues. What has many members of Raider Nation scratching their heads is why the incumbent ...
With Dennis Allen getting comfortable in his new head coach position, the Oakland Raiders are just a couple chosen-coaches away from starting work towards a fierce 2012 season.Between Allen’s vision of “a new day” and GM Reggie McKenzie’s want for an “era of change,” the push has started for a revamped Oakland Raiders team. But Allen’s commitment to “intensity” isn’t going to magically morph the Silver and Black on its own. In fact, there are a couple areas that will need a little tweaking for Oakland to display that “play-off level” potential that Allen seeks to bring out of this ...
It's been a while, Raider Nation. After spending the first month of this past regular season sharing my thoughts with all of you, I took a bit of a hiatus. I have changed residences twice, took the GRE, spent a few months applying to graduate school, traveled to the Bay Area to catch my first game at the Coliseum, and have been at my brother's side during his stint at the hospital. Now? That is all over and done with and I look forward to guiding you through the 2012 offseason. So what did I miss?Since the last time I wrote an article, ...
After many years of only seeing Al Davis on TV once a year, if that, to address the state of the Oakland Raiders, it has felt abnormal to see a Raiders press conference twice over the past three weeks with those conferences to introduce a new general manager in Reggie McKenzie and a new head coach in Dennis Allen.Normally when a team is undergoing as much change in the offseason as the Raiders are this year, it is to follow up a bad season with a house-cleaning that sees most of the previous coaches and front office members fired.Just like the entrance ...
After a 25-20 victory over the Chicago Bears in late November last year, it was unlikely the Oakland Raiders were thinking about their needs in the 2012 NFL draft. The win put them at 7-4 on the season and if they simply played around .500 the rest of the way, they would make the playoffs. Unfortunately they lost four of five down the stretch, watching Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos take the AFC West divisional crown.In the weeks following the collapse, the Raiders have begun a new era. They fired Hue Jackson after just one year and for the ...
As with any fanbase, the Raider Nation is not immune to overrating players. Every offseason coaches and front office personnel across the league lock themselves in the film room to study their own roster. It's not uncommon for a player to lose snaps the following season after the team had time to evaluate his play relative to other players in the league.There are a few players on the roster vulnerable to a loss of snaps or even a loss of a job after the Raiders' new general manager, Reggie McKenzie, and new head coach, Dennis Allen, have time to evaluate them.Who? Matt ...
The Oakland Raiders found their man last week, selecting Dennis Allen as their new head coach. And thus with this hiring, the new era of Raiders football is firmly underway. Many fans of Raider Nation are both a bit nervously skeptical and pleasantly optimistic. Allen has had no previous head coaching experience; but his expertise on the defensive side of the ball is intriguing for a team that ranked near the bottom in the NFL in most defensive categories last season. While Oakland has many items to address in terms of new coaching personnel, there are other decisions that need ...
As some of you know, I live in Evansville, Indiana, in the heart of Colts country. Well, the heart of Colts country once Peyton Manning became a Colt, but that's another story.So I write this article in part to poke fun at "nouveau riche" Colts fans, and in part to imagine how it would go down if Peyton Manning actually did take his talents to Oakland, an admittedly unlikely scenario. So with that disclaimer out of the way, let's toss some things around. Let's assume Manning will be healthy and not a shell of his former self, and let's have some ...
ForewordSunday morning, Oakland, Calif., was on the news because of the protesting that some say stems from economic and social inequities around the United States. A more entertaining event was also televised Sunday morning, showing riders on motorcycles going up and down and all around O.co Coliseum. The announcers bragged about the Coliseum being the home of the Oakland Raiders and the Oakland Athletics.I wondered, "Why would anyone want to move the Oakland Raiders from Oakland?" Certainly the area needs some type of economic stimulus to help move it forward and help the Oakland Raiders become more stable.Since the franchise ...
Looking back at the list of Oakland Raiders head coaches in the last decade-plus, the term "coaching carousel" comes to mind. The term "slaughterhouse" does as well.The organization appeared to be the place for promising young coaches (Gruden) to start, then get run out of town by a controlling, micromanaging owner. It was a place for coaches with no name recognition (and even less talent) came and, after failing to deliver, were unceremoniously disposed of (Cable, Kiffin, Callahan, White). Finally, Oakland was also a place where over-the-hill has-beens came to wait out a year or two under Lord Davis until ...