Is Mark Davis still considering firing Dennis Allen?

The story-lines surrounding Dennis Allen have been mostly positive in the sense that he will be staying the coach of the Raiders. Right now he is still the head coach and right now the Raiders haven't made a concrete decision about him though indications are that he will stay. Right now.

However, until Mark Davis comes out and publicly endorses Dennis Allen as the head coach for the 2014 season the rumors will not be put to rest. So far, that has not happened. Not only has the official decision on Dennis Allen not been made yet, the process has not even fully played out yet. This according to the man himself in an interview with Tim Kawakami.

“My main thought is that Dennis has a contract that he signed two years ago. He’s fulfilled two years of it and Reggie and I will sit down and talk, but yeah he’s the Raiders head coach right now.

Really, the only people who’ve been replacing Dennis as head coach of the Raiders is the media. Am I correct? I’m still going by what I told you earlier, just let the process play itself out.

I’ll do whatever it takes to make this team better."

Since the process has not yet been played out, the whatever it takes to get better can't have been decided yet. Not fully anyway, because if that was the case then what is the point of not confirming it right now? It might just be the media that has put the question out there of whether Dennis Allen really will remain the coach of the Raiders, but Mark Davis has still not actually answered it.

So Mark will not make a decision until he sits down and talks with Dennis Allen, and Mark wont sit down and talk with Dennis until he sits and talks with Reggie McKenzie. So basically, that puts them at a standstill until the process finishes out which won't be soon enough for some of us.

Part of the process is seeing what happens with the coaches around the league that were let go. Mark is waiting to see what happens with them for if Dennis sees somebody that he would like to try and add to his staff.

“I’ve spoken with Reggie, we’ve talked quite a bit today, just about the process and who he’s been speaking with, the health thing with the players, exit stuff… so that part’s taken care of.

You look around at a lot of these other teams–there were what, five or six coaches released today?

It’s an interesting dynamic when that happens, it’s not just the head coach that goes, at times the coaching staff goes as well. And there are always those opportunities, whether the head coach of the Raiders would see some of the other staffs and see other guys they’re interested in.”

That sounds a lot like an ultimatum in a way, like he is saying that Dennis Allen should be looking at some of these coaching staffs before he sits down later with Mark. He didn't come outright and say that so it is obviously just speculation, but Mark has seemed like the type of person who likes to send his messages through the media like this. When will that meeting take place anyway?

“We haven’t set a specific time. But probably some time next week I would think.

I want to see how the playoffs go this weekend–there were some amazing games around the league yesterday.”

Now things got even more interesting in the world of speculation that we currently live in due to Mark Davis' process and delay in officially confirming that Dennis Allen will stay. What exactly does he want to see before he sits with DA and officially makes his decision?

Is Mark keeping his options open by not confirming DA as the coach because he is still interested in a coach that is currently getting ready for a playoff game this upcoming weekend? There is one name in particular who will be coaching this weekend that is an experienced coach that will be highly sought after for a new job after his season is done.

Ken Whisenhunt of the San Diego Chargers. He has experience as a head coach with the Arizona Cardinals. He has stats on his resume that make him a worthy candidate anywhere since he brought that Cardinals team from dysfunction to a Super Bowl appearance. He also is not willing to talk to anybody about his future until the Chargers season is finished because he is concentrating on his Offensive Coordinator duties.

There are also other head coaching candidates that are coaching this weekend, Greg Roman OC of the 49ers being one of them and Packers offensive coordinator Tom Clements as another. Maybe Mark is just being safe but it is at least curious that he wont completely confirm Dennis as the coach next year and that he wants to see this weekend's playoff games first.

Oh and then there is still that pesky little rumor of Mark being infatuated with the idea of Jon Gruden. Jon has gone out of his way to thoroughly dispute his desire to be considered for any job right now, especially not any of them that are currently opened. Still even with this the question has to be asked to Mark if he has been in contact with Jon.

“I’ll never talk about what I’m doing in those respects. It’s such a competitive business, there’s no reason anyone should know what I’m thinking until I do it.”

Consider that just one more layer of secrecy with the new Mr. Davis. He has a really funny way of adding more questions rather than taking them away. That is especially true here when not speaking would have been more of a confirmation of Dennis being safe than what this was. Then again, it could very well just all be part of the “process”.