Rich Gannon sounds off on Dennis Allen firing

Rich Gannon is the co-host of the show The Sirius XM Blitz and yesterday, as he often does, he loudly opined about the Raiders and their recent firing of Dennis Allen.

"I can't say I'm surprised," began Gannon. "They had to get off to a good start, I think everyone was targeting this bye week. They had to be 2-2 at the worst, as it turned out they were 0-4 and there was no sign, to me anyway, that there was any progress."

Gannon then discussed the free agent signings that the Raiders have made this offseason, including Maurice Jones-Drew, Donald Penn, Austin Howard, Justin Tuck, Antonio Smith, Lamarr Woodley and Carlos Rogers. "It's not like the owner's not giving the resources to go out and be successful. They've spent a lot of money, I don't know that they spent it wisely... the first one to go is obviously the head coach, and I think Reggie McKenzie is on thin ice as well."

"They will not get a good quality, qualified head coach to go in there next year and work with Reggie McKenzie," said Gannon. "I say this all the time til I'm blue in the face. If you don't have consistency and continuity in your organization it's hard to win. Ten different head coaches and twenty-five different starting quarterbacks since 1995. That's the most in the NFL, and that my friend is a recipe for disaster... it's been unrecognizable from the organization I played in."

It's obvious that Gannon is passionate about the Raiders and wants to see them do well, but one wonders how the team can go about establishing the aforementioned consistency and continuity by firing their general manager, particularly one who was tasked with burning the roster to the ground and then building it back up. If we accept Dennis Allen as the scapegoat for the Raiders' lack of execution, why is McKenzie on 'thin ice'? It isn't like another GM would have made Oakland a more attractive option for free agent players to sign.

But Gannon is correct in that the Raiders he played for are unrecognizable from the team we see today. That team has solid coaching and plenty of talent. This team does not have either, and hiring a quality head coach in the next offseason is the first step in the process of restoring the team to its rightful glory.