Raiders coach

The Raiders obviously have many decisions to make heading into the offseason. The firing squad around the league took two early victims: Dennis Green of the Arizona Cardinals and Jim Mora of the Atlanta Falcons. I don't know much about the Mora story, other than him talking about going to coach at the University of Washington, but other than that, I'm actually surprised that he's done. He seemed like a pretty good coach to me. As far as Green goes, I feel bad for the man, partly because of the MINNESOTA CONNECTION, but also because he is a good man who should have done a better job with Arizona.

To sum it up, the Raiders have had four incredibly painful years, this year being the most painful of all. But you look at the past 10-12-15 years, and you see that there is something to be thankful for. Not being the Browns, or the Cardinals, or the Lions of all teams. But the Raiders are charging right in with them to become a team of that caliber. And that is not good, not good at all.

Will Art Shell stay? A lot of "pundits" who LOVE to trash the Raiders are saying he will leave. Most of them are saying that he is done. I say to them, maybe. But I doubt it. I will be surprised if he gets fired. I'm pretty sure he will stay for at least one more year and maybe even longer than that. And to be honest, I'm okay with that.

Like many, I have blamed Shell from time to time for a wide variety of things. It's hard to like a coach of a team that performs so poorly and even harder when reading through news reports and articles and blogs about how AWFUL this team has been. So many people are calling for Shell's head. I just don't buy it. If you go back to what I just said, this team performed poorly. This is a performance-based business. And the players did not perform. Surely, the coaching this year has not been without fault, it was not very good. But the players go out there, and even if they went out there with the most vanilla offense you could find (and that might have actually been the case) you still need to block, run, catch, throw, juke, spin, and PROTECT THE BALL.

Art Shell will be back. Sorry to those of you who don't like that, but do you want to sit through yet ANOTHER firing and hiring? This will not change things. And things definitely need to be changed. If I'm wrong, that's fine. I could be. I just don't see it. But if I am wrong, my choice for coach is Rob Ryan. Without a doubt. I want to hear that man speak, and he has no choice but to speak after games, after practices, and all of that. I want to see The Caveman step in front of the podium and throw around some knuckle-headed wisdom. That's just me, that's what I'm about. I think he's earned it.