Oakland Raiders: Starting From Square One (Again) Would Be Sheer Foolishness

The Oakland Raiders dropped their ninth game of the season to Philadelphia on Christmas Day, intensifying the calls for HC Jack Del Rio’s head – a firing that would ultimately be counterproductive.

Give the Oakland Raiders a little credit – they went down swinging against the Philadelphia Eagles in their Christmas Day matchup. Unfortunately, already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, moral victories aren’t going to do much for anybody.

At least they made a game of it, though.

The did anyway, until Derek Carr threw a costly interception – his twelfth of the year – late that allowed the Eagles to kick the go-ahead field goal. And then a clumsy set of laterals that had the Raiders looking more like the Keystone Kops than an NFL football team, allowed the Eagles to scoop up a fumble and score, providing the final 19-10 margin of defeat.

But hey, at least it wasn’t a folded-up index card that determined Oakland’s fate in this game, right? Right?

The loss dropped the Raiders to 6-9 on the year, guaranteeing them a losing season. And this, after being a 12-4 playoff team last season, and entering this year with what many believed were legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.

Yeah, a four-game losing streak and a season in which the offense looked to be less than a shadow of the dynamic powerhouse it was last season effectively put an end to those aspirations in short order.

Oakland’s failing this year have been as varied, as they have been numerous. They’ve had a defense that, until John Pagano took over, was even worse (if you can believe it) than the 2016 incarnation.

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Their offense, one of last season’s most powerful, has had less punch than a boxer with no arms. Their special teams have been far less than special. And the coaching has been suspect – at best.

When you throw that all into a pot, add water, and stir vigorously, you get a big, steaming, pile of – something better not mentioned in a forum such as this. In other words, a 6-9 record and an offseason filled with question marks.

The dumpster fire that has been Oakland’s 2017 season has predictably resulted in a firestorm of anger, outrage, and misery. And, of course, calls for everybody in the building to be fired — a firestorm stoked ever higher by a recent report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who put Jack Del Rio‘s chance of being fired at “50-50.”

And while some heads most definitely must roll – yeah, we’re looking at you, Todd Downing – completely cleaning house, as some people want, would be shortsighted and ultimately, counterproductive.

Oh, it would probably be satisfying for the people who want Del Rio gone to see him get broken off. At least, in that moment But, what would that ultimately accomplish? Yet another head coaching change and the chaos and uncertainty that comes with it.

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Chaos, uncertainty, and a shortsighted hair trigger were all hallmarks of the Raiders in the seasons leading up to the death of Al Davis. And how did that work out?

Since their humiliating defeat at the hands of Jon Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2002 Super Bowl, the Raiders have now had nine different head coaches. Nine. In 15 seasons.

Bill Callahan. Norv Turner. Art Shell. Lane Kiffin. Tom Cable. Hue Jackson. Dennis Allen. Tony Sparano. And now, Del Rio.

That sort of turnover at the top, that sort of instability and chaos, had a detrimental effect on this team and this organization. It helped make the Raiders, one of the proudest and most storied franchises in the league, an absolute laughingstock and perennial bottom-feeder.

It was only after the club hired Del Rio and charged him with turning the organization around, that things actually started to change in the East Bay. Under Del Rio, that Raiders swagger came back and the mystique that surrounded the franchise felt – rejuvenated.

As frustrating as this season has been – and it’s been well beyond frustrating – firing Del Rio is the exact sort of knee-jerk emotional overreaction that helped push the Raiders to the bottom of the league and kept them there.

Does Del Rio have some things he needs to be held to account for? Absolutely. We can start by his refusal to break off Ken Norton Jr. a lot sooner. It’s a non-move made all the more galling when you see the sort of success this defense is having under John Pagano. You can also take issue with his stubborn, “stand by your man” attitude toward the utterly inept and incompetent Todd Downing for so long.

The precipitous drop-off in production from this offense coincided perfectly with the installation of Downing. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that sometimes, correlation actually does equal causation. Not always, but sometimes.

And if you’ve seen this offense flop and flounder around on the field with all the life and energy of a dying fish this year, you know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this is, in fact, one of those cases.

But, you also can’t deny the fact that the Raiders return to relevance also coincided with the arrival of Del Rio – a man well steeped in the culture, history, and mystique of this once-proud franchise. He helped invigorate the fanbase. Helped restore respect and pride throughout this organization. And helped pull this team up from the bowels of hell.

He didn’t do it alone, of course. It would be foolish to think he did. But, he certainly helped. His attitude – that gambling, balls out, in your face mentality – is imprinted on this team. Del Rio helped bring back the fire and the swagger this team has been missing for so long.

It’s been a down year for this team, no question. They were a team on the rise that suddenly fell into a massive pothole. And the failures of this season are all across the board. Del Rio has to have his feet held to the fire, there is no question.

But the same can be said for a lot of the guys on the coaching staff and in that locker room.

If you can step back and look at the situation dispassionately and with a cold, critical eye, you would see that the Raiders really aren’t that far off. They need a few tweaks here and there, yes, but it wouldn’t take them much to get back to where they were in 2016. And perhaps even beyond.

But, one big cog in that machine is going to be the man sitting at the controls. Firing Del Rio, while perhaps gratifying on some level for some people, would ultimately be foolish and counterproductive. It would be taking the team back to square one. Again.

And this team has been back to square one so often over these past fifteen years, the footprints may never be able to be washed off completely. This is a team that can’t afford to go back to square one again.