Report: Raiders hire Dennis Allen as new Head Coach

[Bakuron]

 Raiders hire Allen to replace fired Jackson - Inside the Oakland Raiders - A look inside the world of the highly classified Oakland Raiders from the writers of Bay Area News Group

Edit: Looks official too Raiders make it official, name Dennis Allen new head coach | Silver and Black Report

[Bakuron]

All this stuff about the HC hiring 'his guys' is a bit misguided. Especially for an NFL roster of 53 players with 3 specialist units. The GM with 20 years more experience in personnel should be making most of those decisions. McKenzie is correct not to just impose staff on him but simply accepting any hires wouldn't be much better.

[R8RMR]

It appears that only a few of the major media sources are reporting this as a done deal. A few are saying only that Allen is now the leading candidate. Mostly the local media are running with the Allen is hired story. We will see soon enough.

If true this could be a good move though somewhat surprising considering McKenzies comments and the reports about the Green Bay connections and who he had on his short list. It will be an interesting couple of weeks with everyone getting a better handle on how things could go with who he will bring in and also let go.

I did want a decision made quickly but I didn't expect anything announced till after this weekend. Officially that may still be when they confirm the situation.

[psj3809]

I'm fine with this, read on the US Raiders site some fans are totally anti this move.

To be fair i dont know tons about Dennis Allen, didnt know tons about Jon Gruden when he got the job. Not saying Allen will be as good as Gruden !

But he seems a very good young talent who is up and coming, did well with Denvers defense in just one year but the question some fans asked was was that because of John Fox more than Allen ?

Winston Moss i would have liked due to the Raiders connection and hes apparently again 'an up and comer' but another source mentioned he didnt blow McKenzie away in his interview. Think its quite good McKenzie didnt hire his GB pal instantly as that might have looked like he was going for him whatever.  Moss and Perry have been mentioned as possible defensive co ordinators but again its up to Allen on who he hires.

Offensively i think we'll be fine next year, would like to keep Al Saunders there for continuity but we'll see what happens. Defensively this is where we need the biggest work, Allen should do well and so will his new def co ordinator.  Said it before but as long as the defense jumps up a fraction (eg 5 places to 26th) we'll be far better than last years miserable effort and it'll help us in the W/L columns.  Just cant see our defense getting worse.

But i'm happy with a rookie HC, no way did i want a retread coach, if we hired Tice/Morwhinweg yeah it 'might' have worked out but i couldnt get excited over that.

Its a new start in Oakland, new GM, new rookie HC, think its exciting

[Vann_Mcelroy]

The offense is set , so maybe it was best to get a guy in who knew what he was doing on D

I hope Saunders and his 700 page playbook isnt heading out of town, as the offense was looking set.

Not terribly excited by this guy, but thats probably because we usually go for the young offensive whiz/prospect.

 Denver D was nowt special apart from Miller.but its still  a better hire  than Moss, thats the main thing.

[psj3809]

The offense is set , so maybe it was best to get a guy in who knew what he was doing on D

I hope Saunders and his 700 page playbook isnt heading out of town, as the offense was looking set.

Not terribly excited by this guy, but thats probably because we usually go for the young offensive whiz/prospect.

 Denver D was nowt special apart from Miller.but its still  a better hire  than Moss, thats the main thing.

Agree with most of that but to me hiring a new coach is a bit like a free agent, you dont entirely know what you'll get.  In the past we've been semi excited by some coaches, i must admit when Art Shell Mk II came back i thought it was a good move to get the franchise back on track, totally wrong there.  Did anyone here think Bill Bellichik would become the HC he has at NE ?

I'm glad to have this guy but i wouldnt slate Winston Moss. Perhaps he doesnt excite some people but at the end of the day none of us really know whether he would be any good or not.

I obviously hope this guy does well, if the defense improves we'll be laughing. Would love nothing more than Allen to well with us and we have some great young coach for years and years.

[SuperRaider]

you know Al Davis is not here anymore...so this hire might be a real good one and we might see a good defensive team for once

[psj3809]

you know Al Davis is not here anymore...so this hire might be a real good one and we might see a good defensive team for once

Well at this stage its all wishful thinking.  If we have a nightmare 2012 then we'll all be sat here in 12 months time saying what a stupid move it was to go for this guy !

But again i'm just glad we didnt have a retread coach, saying that that might have been a good move. Giant fans werent overexcited when they got Tom Coughlin and now look.

But we have our coach so i'm getting behind him, looking forward to knowing who the co ordinators will be.  Hopefully this young coach wont be trying 76 yard FG's or do the unthinkable and wear white in home games

[SuperRaider]

Before you start beating up Kiffin; he did not stand a chance....Kiffin told Al don't draft Russell and also want to fire Rob Ryan

[psj3809]

Before you start beating up Kiffin; he did not stand a chance....Kiffin told Al don't draft Russell and also want to fire Rob Ryan

Before i beat up on Kiffin ?  Hes crap, dont know why you still love him.

But Rob Ryan according to you is one of the best coaches !

Who would we have drafted then ? Dont say Calvin Johnson as we didnt really need a WR back then, a lot of people here wanted Russell and didnt think Al would take him.

He did stand a chance, he just acted like a childish idiot in press conferences, purposely doing crap to wind up Al (again wearing white at home, inexcusable), a stupid long FG attempt.  He then acted a twat in Tennesee as a coach, only done okay at USC as his dad is there coaching the defense isnt he ?

Lane Kiffin was a disaster for us and he has to shoulder a ton of blame on himself.  Again no NFL team has come knocking for him to offer him a job even as an assistant. First game for us was good, offensively we had a very good game as i remember that one well against Detroit (McCown had 30 completions for us), but then it just went downhill and Kiffin was acting a prat more and more.

[R8RMR]

I didn't like what Lance did with the Raiders and after his departure from Tennessee, I was among those that thought he would struggle to produce at USC.  However despite their problems with recruiting and the sanctions imposed, he seems to have them doing very well. As he has been named coach of the year by the LA sports council we may not have seen the last of him at all .

[psj3809]

I think having his dad run the defense there helps a ton !

But yeah i think once Kiffin matures he will get a chance at some point back in the NFL, easy to look back now but he was totally too young and immature when we took him on.  I still cringe when i remember watching some of his post-game interviews, just like a kid.  Seems like no one in the NFL will touch him with a barge pole currently but a few more years at USC when they arent under suspension for bowl games will help him.  But back then he was way too young and after a promising start it all went downhill.

Remember that KC game which was the last game he coached, he knew the writing was on the wall and instead of acting a smug little show off in the post game interview he was very quiet.

Al used to have an eye for talent, he interviewed Bellichik before he was a 'big name' and also Sean Payton but Kiffin was one big misfire sadly

[Bakuron]

The offense is set , so maybe it was best to get a guy in who knew what he was doing on D

I hope Saunders and his 700 page playbook isnt heading out of town, as the offense was looking set.

Not terribly excited by this guy, but thats probably because we usually go for the young offensive whiz/prospect.

 Denver D was nowt special apart from Miller.but its still  a better hire  than Moss, thats the main thing.

Well in fairness that Denver D was less talented than ours overall. But they were dominant at times in clutch situations.

But I did say that due to Als death the biggest vacuum in the organisation was on the defensive side of the ball.

Does anyone know if Al ever interviewed Allen?

[psj3809]

Always good to hear the Broncos moaning !....

Broncos lament loss of Dennis Allen to Raiders | ProFootballTalk

Do agree with this part though...

"Raiders fans asking “Dennis Who?” should keep that in mind.  Instead of latching on to an established name (i.e., someone who has been fired from an NFL head-coaching job), the Raiders are trying to find the next big-name coach before he becomes the next big-name coach."

I would like patience from McKenzie, the amount of coaches we had in the 90's was just ridiculous.  I mean Art Shell Mk I was fired for having a 7-9 record wasnt he back in 1994 ? 

Joe Bugel was a bad hire (Al listened to the players for once) but other coaches should have got more time.  I like the Steelers way of doing it, give the coach time to get the squad how they want and dont sack a coach a year later

I'm no huge fan of Ratface Shanahan but back then Al spotted a talented young coach, should have let him change the offense to how he wanted and give him time .  Instead Shanahan gets sacked and haunts us in Denver for years.

I would want Dennis Allen to have a minimum 4 years as the coach, dont panic if we suddenly go 6-10 next year, just cant keep swapping coaches every year or two

[SuperRaider]

Raiders are still a young team....so cannot see them going 6-10 next season plus Denver, KC and Charger are now average teams.