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Raiders WTF Watch Continues…Hue Jackson In, Cable Too?

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:15:50 +0000

The Raiders officially hired Hue Jackson, former Ravens QB coach, to be their new offensive coordinator. Previously, Tom Cable was both the head coach and offensive coordinator, so while this is a cutback on his responsibilities, it must mean he’s staying right?

Well, not so fast.

Apparently the Raiders are still unwilling to say that Cable will be the head coach next year, with Senior Executive John Herrera saying that staff decisions are “still an ongoing process.” It seems likely that Cable will stay at this point, as Adam Schefter from ESPN is reporting that a source in the Raiders organization has said that Davis will retain Cable. Also, the two assistants recently hired by Davis both have connections to Cable: Jackson coached with Cable at Cal State Fullerton in 1990 and Cal in 1996, and new defensive line coach Mike Waufle also worked with Cable at Cal in the 90’s. Cable is currently at the Senior Bowl scouting college players, which seems like something a guy keeping his job would do.

So given that, what the hell is Al Davis doing? I once again have no idea. If you’ve made a decision to retain the guy, why not just say it? The Raiders currently have a major PR problem and it announcing that Cable is staying would get them out of the news. But, maybe Davis wants the Raiders to stay in the news: as they say “all press is good press.” The only reason I can think for the delay is that Davis is still poking around, hoping that someone he likes better will, for some godforsaken reason, want to coach his team. I don’t think that’s happening. Cable’s coming back, but the Oakland Towelies give me no clue as to why the hell it’s taking so long.

Raiders WTF Watch 2010: I Have No Idea What’s Goin on Right Now Towelie Style

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:41:44 +0000

So a funny thing happened on the way to Hue Jackon’s interview to become the offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders…he may atually have been told that he’s also intervewing for the head coaching position. Hue Jackson is currently the quarterbacks coach for the Baltimore Ravens, and is credited with helping Joe Flacco develop from a rookie into a quality NFL QB. Regardless of whether or not Jackson is actually interviewing for the head coaching position, the fact that the Raiders are talking to him indicates that they are interested in keeping JaMarcus Russell, hoping that a quarterback guru can come in and save him. I have a feeling Al Davis is interviewing people waiting for what he wants to hear, which is for a coach to come in and believably say “I can fix JaMarcus Russell” with confidence. Of course, anyone interviewing for the job will tell Davis that– they’re trying to get hired, not piss the guy off and tell him his huge multimillion dollar first pick in the draft QB is a bust!

The Raiders keep saying that Davis and Cable are in discussions about the future of the Raiders, and keep denying that anyone is interviewing for the head coaching job. But where there’s smoke there’s fire, and there are just so many reports about head coaching interviews going on out there. I may have clue what the Raiders are doing, but I guarantee that if Tom Cable is saying that he’s given up on Russell he is as good as gone. For now, the Raiders might as well change their mascot to Towelie, because they have no idea what’s going on right now.

I Have No Idea What the Raiders Are Doing.

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:01:52 +0000

Rumor has itthat Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders have been interviewing potential replacements for current head coach Tom Cable for the last two weeks. Problem is they haven’t exactly fired Tom Cable yet. In fact, for the last two weeks rumors kept surfacing that Davis and Cable were set to meet about his future, only those meetings kept not happening. At least two people interviewed by the Raiders include former Giants coach Jim Fassell, who has publicly stated he wants to coach the Raiders, and Marc Trestman, former Raiders offensive coordinator.

This may be the very reason that Buffalo G.M. Buddy Nix commented, while introducing Chan Gailey yesterday: “Don’t ever think you can’t fill coaching jobs, even if they’re bad. Oakland gets a lot of calls.” I don’t understand how Al Davis can keep stringing along Cable by not telling him if he’s fired while interviewing other candidates. Who would ever want to coach for this team? Al Davis runs through head coaches like Tiger runs through mistresses. This is just another example of how Al Davis clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore. He can’t even make up his own mind about who should coach his own team, let alone make a good pick in the first round (*Darius Heyward-Bey*).

Tom Cable deserves another season. He managed to lead the Raiders to victories over the Bengals, Eagles, Broncos, and Steelers later in the season with an assortment of second/third tier quarterbacks. Cable didn’t draft JaMarcus Russell, and shouldn’t take the fall for his inadequacies. If Cable goes, it means that Al Davis isn’t willing to say that he made a mistake by picking JaMarcus Russell and likely won’t part ways with him. If that’s the case, good luck Oakland, no matter who the coach is.