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Silver and Black Pride's Sunday Community Poll: Raiders Impact Coaches

It's June and we find ourselves in the middle of the OTA's for the Raiders as well as for the rest of the NFL teams.This is a rather slow period leading up to training camp later in July and then finally the NFL regular season.

While there is not much going on these days, it is interesting to look at how different this offseason is compared to the last one with all of the commotion and distractions from the Kiffin issues. To be sure, the Raiders did have some talented players during the Kiffin era, but a good part of the reason for the poor play was not just the fore stated distractions, but also the inexperience of the coaching staff. The rebuilding 2007, 2008 and going into 2009 Raiders are a young team that needed experienced NFL coaches to tutor the young players in an experienced NFL way, not the NCAA way.

One of the reasons why I have liked this offseason so much has been the coaching staff upgrade of experienced, proven and credentialed coaches brought in to guide these young, to-be core players of the Raiders.

This weeks poll is not about head coach Tom Cable and his impact on the team, but rather his assistants and position coaches that will have an impact on their specific units.The Raiders are young and very talented team in 2009. Managing and coaching that young talent is in the hands of these experienced assistants that will need to tap into that experience and put these players in the best position to succeed. The assistants have the ability to have major impacts on their respective units and elevate the Raiders out of the doldrums and into the winning ways.

The new assistants to the Raiders staff that are in position to have the biggest impact on this years team are:

  • Paul Hackett, QB Coach: replacing the college level, very inexperienced John DeFilippi. Hackett is in position to teach JaMarcus Russell to be the elite QB that al of us expect him to be.
  • Sanjay Lal, Wide receivers: replacing James Lofton, Lal is in the position of coaching the most under productive group from last years team. With only one veteran player in Javon Walker, Lal inherits a unit of very talanted and young players with limited experience. Lal's ability to bring this group up to the next level will clearly be on display this year.
  • Jim Michalczik, Offensive Line: replacing in essence Tom Cable, Michalczik will keep the same ZBS philosopy with the added element of some power blocking. This group is young, already improving and has talent. It will be up to Michalczik to this group from regressing and to become a team strength.
  • John Marshall, Defensive Coordinator: replacing the much criticized Rob Ryan, Marshall brings vast experience from coaching young inexperienced teams to playoff and Super bowl teams. We will certainly  find out this season if the reason for the poor play of the Raiders defense these last few years was Ryan or lack of talent.
  • Mike Haluchak, Linebackers: replacing Don Martindale, Haluchak brings 23 years of experience in the NFL to the Raiders and has coached some of the better linebacker units in the league. The Raiders linebackers, while talented, have been out of position often and have had a propensity to miss far too many tackles. These are issues of fundamentals and Haluchak should be able to provide that to this unit.
  • Others worth mentioning are: Kelly Skipper, John Fassell, Brad Roll and Dwaine Board.

The Raiders improved play for 2009 will begin with the coaches. Who do you think will have the biggest impact?

 

Poll
Which Raiders assistant coach will have the biggest impact on the team in 2009?
Paul Hackett
230 votes
Sanjay Lal
46 votes
Jim Michalczik
26 votes
John Marshall
335 votes
Mike Haluchak
11 votes
Others: Kelly Skipper, Brad Roll, John Fassell or Dwaine Board
13 votes

661 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  Comment 8 comments |

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Nice article

I guess I am most concerned about Lal, he apparently is the youngest of the new coaches, and coaching the WR’s, one of the most important areas for this team. Everybody always blames a QB for incomplete passes and do not take into consideration that receivers have to make the same read as the QB, have to make the right cuts at the right place etc. With so many young receivers this is a major teaching area, just hope that Lal is the right choice and commands the respect from the players.

by Laoren on Jun 7, 2009 7:39 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Marshall

If his new defensive scheme doesn’t help the run D, then we can expect a full defensive overhaul in the front 7, which could set us back to the rebuilding stage. It could also cause a revolving door at D-coordinator for years, setting us back to square one. I expect him to get our run D to about 18-21st range, our LB’s to have more than just two or three sacks, and our pass D to stay in the top-10.

Randy Blythe, Singer of Lamb of God- "Words can be broken, so can bones....." Omerta by Lamb of God

by KA1Z3R on Jun 7, 2009 8:43 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

I wanna

See some more blitzes coming on Defense we know that both Nnamdi and Johnson can hold there man down for at least 5 solid seconds which should be more than enough time and any running back trying to run through a silver and black stampede good luck I wouldn’t want to.

Amazing, Jamarcus Russell hands off to McFadden who pitches it back to Russell who finds Darrius Heyward Bey in the Middle of the Field wide open 30, 20,10,5 Touchdown Raiders! Amazing. This telecast is Brought to you by Cable.

by nishal26 on Jun 7, 2009 9:44 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Don't expect much change

I remember Cable saying in a couple of interviews that the defense will be very very similar to what we have seen.

Just HIT somebody.

by SBcitizen on Jun 7, 2009 9:46 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

except the so called "added discipline"

Randy Blythe, Singer of Lamb of God- "Words can be broken, so can bones....." Omerta by Lamb of God

by KA1Z3R on Jun 7, 2009 11:25 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Marshall was terrible in Seattle

He had loads of talent and frequently misused it, the worst example of that is relying Brian Russell in a cover 1.

by RaiderPete on Jun 7, 2009 8:24 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

I like the 4-3

I like our defensive scheme, I just want to see some Biltzs and our line to step up. Hopefully he does bring some discipline, it seems like our players recognize their failure against the run and they do want to blitz.

Just HIT somebody.

by SBcitizen on Jun 7, 2009 12:40 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

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