Raiders GM McKenzie: Offensive coordinator search is winding down

The Oakland Raiders off season has been quiet so far, and not to the delight of the Raider Nation. But the silence from the front offices was finally broken on Thursday when general manager Reggie McKenzie made his first public statements since November 30th.

In his first address to the media since the season ended, McKenzie discussed a lot of topics. Some of his comments were vanilla and did not reveal much, but others were rather interesting. The comment that stood out the most, in my opinion, was when McKenzie stated that the offensive coordinator search was "winding down". This will come as a surprise to many Raiders fans because only a couple of names have been mentioned as having had interviews, and none of them were particularly exciting.

In fact, the two names that would invoke excitement were Marc Trestman, who was hired as the head coach of the Chicago Bears and Norv Turner, whose name was not previously mentioned as getting an interview, but who was also hired this past week.

Besides those two names, the Raiders have interviewed were Mike Martz, the creator of the Greatest Show on Turf, and Greg Olson, the quarterbacks coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Neither of those two names are particularly exciting. Sure, Martz did once put together one of the greatest offenses in the NFL, but his most recent jobs with the Bears and the Niners were big time failures. Plus, his pass first offense does not appear to be a great fit for the Raiders. Olson, on the other hand, has rather little to go on other than being a coach on one of the worst teams in the NFL.

That leaves the Raiders with one question, how could they be close to hiring an OC with names like that? Many in the Raider Nation fan base are likely not very happy that the Raiders are not even interviewing some of the bigger names out there. Names like Chan Gailey, Pat Shurmer or Mike Mularky.

But, maybe the names being interviewed are not very impressive because the Raiders knew all along that they would not be going out of house to get their new offensive coordinator. As many fans have noted, the Raiders have a very good option at offensive coordinator on their staff in Al Saunders.

Whoever is the future coordinator of the Raiders, it appears as though the fans will not have to wait a whole lot longer to find out.