The Oakland Raiders Need Consistency at the Coaching Position

On Tuesday the Oakland Raiders made, yet again, another coaching change after a season in which the team went 8-8 and competed for the playoff berth until the final week (when they decided they no longer wanted to compete). This change is not entirely unexpected because the Raiders are moving in a new direction since the death of Al Davis with a new general manager (Reggie McKenzie from the Green Bay Packers organization), but I think this is the wrong move. Lane Kiffin, Tom Cable, Hue Jackson. The coaching Carousel is highlighted every year by the Raiders fickle ownership/front office.

The Oakland Raiders have for years been a very talented team that lacked two things: consistency at the quarterback position and consistency with the head coach. Neither of which are easily overcome-able obstacles. It is hard to win consistently in the N.F.L. and even harder if every year the team has to restruct itself and rebuild. This year the Raiders seemed to finally figure some things out before flaming out in the final game of the season. Yes that was a terrible loss, but firing Hue Jackson won’t make the Raiders better next year.

Mckenzie is walking into a terrible position and will have to work miracles. The Raiders have done a better job of drafting than people have given them credit for, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t holes on this roster, holes that are not fixable in this upcoming draft because the Raiders have only a 5th and 6th round pick. How is this team going to go through a roster turnover when they are also operating with little space (unless some huge contracts are coming off the books) in the salary cap?

Adding a new coach into the mix seems like a risky proposition even if Profootballtalk.com disagrees with me.

“It ain’t Reggie,” Hue said of McKenzie. “Me and him get along. The easiest thing to do is to start over and bring in all new people, which is what he’s doing. The hardest thing to do is to say, ‘I’m gonna keep a guy who’s already here and try to build around him.”

Jackson is right. It is hard to build around a coach you didn’t choose. General managers have tried it and it rarely works. You usually end up wasting time for a year like Ted Thompson did in Green Bay and Mike Holmgren did in Cleveland.

It’s especially hard to do when the head coach publicly asks for more power that he doesn’t get. That’s not a situation that lends itself to a harmonious coach-G.M. relationship.
The problem with the Raiders is that they have done this song and dance way too many times. It is nearly impossible for a coach to come in an win immediately, especially since most coaches will dramatically change either the offensive or defensive schemes. Now the Raiders are back at square one when they could have kept Hue Jackson and took a big shot at the playoffs next year with a very similar roster, instead waiting on 2013 when we’ll know if Terrelle Pryor can be the answer at quarterback and McKenzie actually has some room to operate in the salary cap system.

Here’s to hoping whatever happens this next Raiders coach gets a legitimate chance to build a contender in Oakland, and isn’t shown the door, yet again, after only a year or two as the head coach, the most successful teams have stability at the head coaching position and don’t hire and fire coaches on whims.

Maybe it will turn out in the end this move is justified and that Hue Jackson was going to be in a power-struggle in Oakland, but sometime eventually the Raiders have to settle on a coach and give him a long term opportunity to succeed.

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