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The Raiders have their offensive coordinator officially in place. His name is Bill Musgrave. He has been a coach at the NFL level the past 18 years, so we have a pretty good sample size to draw from to see what Musgrave brings to the table.
He has been an offensive coordinator for a total of seven seasons. That's one season in Philadelphia (1998), one in Carolina (2000), two in Jacksonville under Jack Del Rio (2003-04), and three in Minnesota (2011-13).
The most impressive numbers you see from Musgrave offenses in those seasons comes from the run game. In two of those stops, he had a couple of phenomenal running backs in Fred Taylor and Adrian Peterson.
Musgrave's first season as OC with the Jaguars, Taylor had 1527 yards rushing which was the best season of his career. The other season Taylor had 1224 yards rushing.
In Musgrave's second season as Vikings OC, Adrian Peterson ran for a career best 2097 yards. Peterson had 1266 yards rushing the following season, also under Musgrave.
That could signal some big numbers for Latavius Murray or whomever else the Raiders bring on at the running back position.
His offenses as a whole have been fair to middling in some cases and bottom dwelling in others.
As far as the passing game, Musgrave has had a gallery of coach killers thrust upon him. His first season as an OC he had a 35-year-old Steve Beurlein in his final season as a fulltime starter. And it would get worse from there.
His single season as Eagles OC in 1998, his QB's were Bobby Hoying and Koy Detmer. In his two seasons in Jacksonville, his quarterback was Byron Leftwich. In his three seasons in Minnesota his quarterbacks were Christian Ponder and Matt Cassel.
In the seasons between stints as an offensive coordinator in the NFL, Musgrave was a quarterbacks coach. That's his specialty. Which makes it all the more surprising in some regard that his playcalling leans more toward the run game and his running backs have career years under him.
His first season as an NFL coach was in 1997 with the Raiders as a quarterbacks coach. His assignment? Jeff George. That season George managed to throw for nearly 4000 yards (3917) with 29 touchdowns to 9 interceptions. It was the best season of his career.
He was next quarterbacks coach in Carolina and in his first season there, Steve Beurlein also had a career year, throwing for 4436 yards with 36 touchdowns to 15 interceptions.
In his second year in Jacksonville as offensive coordinator, Musgrave was also given the title of QB coach. Byron Leftwich had the best season of his career that year, throwing for 2941 yards with 15 TD's to 10 INT.
In one season in Washington in 2005, Musgrave had a 35-year-old Mark Brunell as his QB. Brunell threw for 3050 yards with 23 TD's and 10 INT. It was the most TD's Brunell had ever thrown, the third best passer rating of his career, and the last time he was a fulltime starter in the NFL.
Musgrave was the QB coach in Atlanta for the first three seasons of Matt Ryan's career. Ryan was named to a Pro Bowl in his third season, throwing for a then career high 3705 yards with 28 TD's to 9 INT. The Falcons finished 13-3 that year but lost to the Packers in the playoffs.
Last season with the Eagles, after losing Nick Foles to injury midseason, he coached Mark Sanchez to by far the best passer rating of his career (88.4), a good ten points higher than his previous best.
That means he managed to get career years out of the likes of Jeff George, Steve Beurlein, Byron Leftwich, Mark Brunell, and Mark Sanchez while also being credited with the development of Matt Ryan who was just named to his third Pro Bowl.
Musgrave's history as a QB coach certainly doesn't hurt Derek Carr's chances of developing into a successful NFL quarterback.
As an offensive coordinator, Musgrave's teams have ranked thusly:
1998 Eagles -- 30th points, 30th yards
2000 Panthers -- 21st points, 20th yards
2003 Jaguars -- 25th points, 12th yards
2004 Jaguars -- 29th points, 21st yards
2011 Vikings -- 19th points, 18th yards
2012 Vikings -- 14th points, 20th yards
2013 Vikings -- 14th points, 13th yards
Musgrave was fired by Del Rio ten years ago mainly because the Jaguars offense was one of the worst in the NFL. That was with Byron Leftwich at QB. A year later, the Jaguars gave up on Leftwich as their future at QB and rightfully so.
Musgrave had his best season as an OC in his last season as an OC. That year the starts were split between Matt Cassel (9) and Christian Ponder (6) with Josh Freeman getting a start in there too. The entire coaching staff was ousted after that.
His career rankings show improvement. As an offensive coordinator, he has never had great talent at the quarterback position. It forced to lean heavily on the run game. It has led to him being known as a more conservative offensive coordinator.
If Derek Carr can continue his development, which Musgrave can assist in, we could see a more balanced attack. It certainly won't be what the Raiders deployed last year in which they had Carr throwing 50 times a game and abandoning the run before it could even get going.
That's not to say Musgrave will be great. But he is an improvement from Greg Olson who was an improvement from Greg Knapp. And it's possible Musgrave could be the right hire. While he isn't Marc Trestman, there's no reason based on Musgrave's history to believe he is wrong one.
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