The news broke last week that the Oakland Raiders were offering an incentive program for their employees. The idea is that the any employee can sell season tickets totaling to percent of their pay during the lockout. While some chose to report this as a way for employees to avoid pay cuts the Raiders have never said what would happen to employees should they not meet their quota other than the fact that they "would work with them," and that the program was put in place for everyone to succeed.
More news came out Sunday that the Raiders will not be cutting the pay of their assistant coaches for any reason from now until at least the scheduled start of the season. Greg A. Bedard of Boston.com talked with Larry Keenan, Director of the NFL Coaches Association, said the Raiders were one of seven teams (Seattle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Giants, Indianapolis, and Dallas) to make such a promise.
The other 25 teams have either already instituted cuts, will do so on June 1, or have the right to do so at some point. The cuts range from 20 to 50 percent.
"Four teams are at 50 percent, there are a couple that are 30 or 35, but generally it’s 20 or 25 percent,’’ Kennan said. "That’s significant. You’re used to living on that. To take half your pay away, that isn’t comfortable.’’
And with that it just got a little easier for the Raiders to hire coaches. You better believe there is a ton of resentment from any coach whose pay got cut during a lockout that does not involve them and they are still being asked to work.
I wouldn't expect this to impact the future hiring of head coaches or coordinators. They are going to go where the money is, and that is not with the Raiders. Also the head coach and defensive coordinator are going to have to run by things with their owner that they wouldn't have to almost any other place. But this is certainly going to push the Raiders up the totem for positional coaches.