This one’s pretty interesting. Personally, I don’t think the Raiders will ever return to glory until Al Davis either sells the team or passes away. As much as I loathe Al and think he’s a joke–narcissism and dementia mix to form a toxic cocktail, obviously–I love the guy’s passion. I’ve always longed for the Chiefs (and my Pacers and Royals, for that matter) to have an owner who cared more about winning than money.
Of course, it doesn’t work when the owner won’t take a somewhat hands-off approach and let the football people he brings in make the football decisions. Al’s problems are: A.) He thinks he’s smarter than everybody else, even when it comes to Xs and Os; B.) He wants everyone to be subservient to him. Yeah, like dogs basically; and C.) He knows his time is winding down, so he’s gotten ridiculously impatient. Lane Kiffin was doing fine. He already had the Silver and Black playing much better. Hell, they’re a few plays away from being 3-1. I would have traded him for Herm Edwards and even thrown in some Metamucil for the Crypt Keeper. Either that or a Ouija board so that his employees could actually speak with him. Yes, I know I’m going to take heat for bashing Herm after last week, but save it. He’s still a terrible game coach.
Will the Raiders ever win again while Al Davis remains in power?
FanSided Sports Blog
Kings of Kauffman
NFL Mocks
Stock Car Spin
Bolt Beat
Just Blog Baby
Predominantly Orange
Ramblin' Fan
Loading ...
Kiffin over Edwards? What are you smoking?
I’d take every head coach in the NFL except Norv Turner, Romeo Crennel, Marvin Lewis, Rod Marinelli, Jim Hasslet (he’s basically the same thing–more “rah-rah” than results), Brad Childress and now Tom Cable over him. He’s currently the eighth worst coach in the league, in my opinion.
You must have smoked something today, Adam. We all bitch about Herm, but at least he has credentials NOW: namely, drafting superbly. Lane Kiffin has the Raiders playing better? Their D dropped from 3rd in the league (and that’s while getting SMOKED, and being on the field ALL game long, while their offense BLEW,) to one of the worst D’s last year. Their O isn’t much better off, even with awesome RB depth, and promising young receivers (Curry, Higgins,) and the addition of Javon Walker. Lane hasn’t improved that team, they had most of the talent already on that team, before he showed up, and added even more since he got there, and he STILL can’t win. If you want to talk about how the Raiders were a few plays from being better this year, think about last year, when our Chiefs were a few plays/drives away from being closer to 10-6 than 4-12. It happens. Kiffin may come into his own as a coach, due to his youth, he’s still pretty inexperienced, but Herm can at least help us draft well, which, for a rebuilding team, is key. I wouldn’t take Kiffin right now for any major coaching staff position, unless it was LOW on the totem pole, and he had time to sit and learn more.
The Raiders receiving corps is awful. Pathetic even. I think he’s a better coach than Herm, and I think that his 2-1 record against Herm with two wins at Arrowhead supports my claim.
Can’t blame their receivers.. Their offense (and more specifically, JaMarcus Russel, Michael Bush, and Darren McFadden,) have a combined 10 fumbles LOST, between them already. It’s 4 games into the season. That’s crazy. None of the receivers have lost a fumble, or even fumbled, so they are clearly being hurt by bad QB play/RB mistakes. Also, Johnnie Lee Higgins, their returner, and definetly not their first string-WR, has only five yards less than Darling and Webb combined. Zach Miller, their TE, has only 23 yards less than Tony G. We only have 2 touchdowns out of our WR’s (Both courtesy of Mr. Awesome,) and they have 3 between Higgins, Curry, and Lelie.
If their WR’s are pathetic, ours, minus D-Bowe, are even worse, which makes my point on the fact that Darling and Webb are disappointments (unless you predicted this, like me, and then they’re playing just about like we thought.)
And you can’t say Herm has made us any worse, talent-wise. The additions of Dorsey, Tank, Turk, Taylor, Albert, all solidify our line positions, while other contributors like JamChar, D-Bowe, Carr, and Flowers, have stepped up big in their respective roles. I just can’t understand an argument FOR Kiffen, even over the inadequate Herm.
Our receivers minus Bowe are worse than theirs. That doesn’t mean that either set is good.
Didn’t say they were, in fact, I am just using that to, in a way, get back at all the people that said Devard would somehow magically turn into a legitimate number two receiver. Same goes for Webb. Meanwhile, where are we struggling at? The redzone, and right near the redzone, where the field is contracted, the passing lanes are tighter, and the receivers need better hands.. Catch my drift?
But back to the main point; Kiffin. I didn’t say either set of WR’s is good, I said they were promising. But at least WE, under HERM, have A legitimate receiver. He’s off to a so-so start, but then again, so is our whole offense.
So Herm is bad, and Kiffin is/was good, eh? We had the WORST 12-game streak in the history of our franchise, and we still TIED the Raiders win/loss total dating back to the start of last year (5-15.)
.250 winning percentage isn’t good, any way you look at it, but at least Herm has a plausible excuse. We’re rebuilding, as Vermiel left no Plan B, when his Flying Circus left town. We’ve started from scratch, and as such, Herm is expected to lose. I don’t like Herm as well as pretty much anyone here, but he’s one of the best drafters in the game today, he’s just got a scout’s eye. And he’s better overall than Kiffin, I’ll give him that, too.
Kiffin had an owner/GM that constantly undermined him. Apparently, defensive coordinator Rob Ryan answered only to Al Davis, and not Kiffin. I think Herm has a much better situation here. I give a lot of the draft credit to Bill Kuharich as well. Those are two points that HAD to be pointed out.
Ahh, and I waited for you to point those out, so I could say this: If he was undermined the whole time, and didn’t have any say-so for a team he was the HEAD COACH of, then how in the world would you want to trade for him? He obviously had virtually no power, which means most of the ‘talent upgrades’ that you spoke of, are moot points, as they weren’t under his discretion. Also, the point still stands, even if you want to include Kuharich in it as well, that Herm has had some very tasty drafts, back to his Jets days. Add on to that two very nicely done drafts in KC, and you can start putting two and two together. Why trade a proven drafting ‘wizard’, and I use that term loosely, as it’s thrown around alot these days, for an unproven, incredibly young head coach? Especially, and probably more importantly, during a rebuilding period of our franchise. We need someone who can draft, and draft well. We need someone who commands respect, and gets young players to step-up. Kiffin is younger than some of the players on the squads, for crying out loud. Like I said, maybe one day, but to say that Kiffin would be better than Herm right at this moment, is like saying we should trade up for the number one pick, just to take Chase Daniel.