Dennis Allen survives Black Monday, every indication he'll be back

It's the dreaded ‘Black Monday' for the NFL. The day the axe comes down on many head coaches across the league. Today is also the day for head coaches to hold their end of season press conference. The question was who would be walking through that door for the Raiders. That man was a pretty confident looking Dennis Allen.

"I've been given the indication that I'll be back but I think it will be important for me and Mark to be able to sit down and communicate and talk about the things that we need to talk about, but I have every intention of being back."

"I haven't been told I won't, and so I wouldn't say there's been any guarantees made," said Allen. "I'm moving forward in that direction. I fully anticipate and fully expect to be the coach of the football team and that's the way I'm moving forward."

Allen wasn't the only one who was confident Allen would be back as head coach. He addressed his team this morning as head coach, which is typically not something head coach would do if he were not in the plans.

"I met with almost all of them individually, and I met with them all as a group, as a team, and just said that, you know, I don't plan on going anywhere, I plan on being here."

"I feel like all the players have bought in, I think all the players believed in what we were doing, I didn't sense that there was any sense of give up or that the players had kind of gone a separate direction. And I think that speaks to the coaching staff and the players."

The Raiders have had two straight 4-12 seasons under Dennis Allen which was the kind of win totals that got several other coaches fired today such as Leslie Frazier (Vikings), Greg Schiano (Buccaneers), Mike Shanahan (Redskins), and Jim Schwartz (Lions). Browns fired Mike Chudzinski yesterday and the Texans fired Gary Kubiak during the season.

The Raiders situation is slightly different. They have been in a considerable rebuild the past couple seasons. Although, Mark Davis recently referred to it as a "deconstruction". Not a word you would have heard the team use last off-season when even the word "rebuild" was a no-no. Now they're saying the rebuild will begin.

"I look at it as this is the beginning," said Allen. "This is the beginning of being able to build and create the things that we want to create here. I'm not looking at this as the end, I'm looking at this as the start, as the beginning, and this is where we have an opportunity to really create here. This is where we should be judged. We should be judged on this point moving forward."

From the sounds of it, Mark Davis is allowing Dennis Allen to ride out the last two years with the dead money and roster overhaul. If that's the case, it is a level of patience that is considered admirable by some, not as much by those who want instant results. Either way, it appears Dennis Allen's evaluation will wait until he has all the tools at his disposal - full salary cap, near full draft - before he is fully judged.

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