What's wrong? It's not Al

I agree with the general thrust of your comments .. concerning the lack of respect for Mr. Davis. But even the most ardent Raider fan must admit the past 5 years or so have been a complete disaster. Awful trades combined with even worse drafting show that Mr. Davis has lost his ability to spot and evaluate talent in the new era of football.

Since the trading of coach Gruden, the Raiders have had more high draft picks than any other football team and have done virtually nothing with them. And even at this point have real concerns on the O line, D line, D backfield, linebacker, WR, and QB.

I'd love to see Al go out with a bang and not a whimper but it does not look realistic unless he gets some top level help in evaluating talent and character in bringing in new players...

LB

I couldn't agree more. While I may not always agree with Al's decisions, I believe the Raiders are his #1 and that he has always done what he felt was in the best interest of the team. Specifically making the team a winner. As far as blaming the last 5 losing seasons, I guess he has to bear some of the blame for his hiring and signings. But honestly no one can really believe he was intentionally bringing in stiffs. Coaches or players. I have maintained that through out these losuing seasons, Al Davis has not played a single down. He is not out there dropping passes and missing tackles and jumping offside. The majority of the blame is on the players. Jerry Porter is a prime example.As a Raider he strutted around like he was an elite player along the line of T.O. or Randy Moss when he was NEVER better than a #2 WR.Ever. He felt he was being under utilized in Oakland and the team was holding him back. That he would be a superstar elite WR on another team.Many "experts" felt the same. Well, he got his wish. SURPRISE! He was mediocre and injury prone and Jackosonville cut him. Proved what I had maintained all along about him. Now he will be lucky if some team signs him as a #3 or 4 WR for league minimum. It's been a number of players not dong their jobs. Period.

LB Lawrence wrote:

I agree with the general thrust of your comments .. concerning the lack of respect for Mr. Davis. But even the most ardent Raider fan must admit the past 5 years or so have been a complete disaster. Awful trades combined with even worse drafting show that Mr. Davis has lost his ability to spot and evaluate talent in the new era of football.
Since the trading of coach Gruden, the Raiders have had more high draft picks than any other football team and have done virtually nothing with them. And even at this point have real concerns on the O line, D line, D backfield, linebacker, WR, and QB.
I'd love to see Al go out with a bang and not a whimper but it does not look realistic unless he gets some top level help in evaluating talent and character in bringing in new players...
LB

Have you not been paying attention to the Detroit Lions?

Great Post, like many I too am sick and tired of all the bashing the raiders and especially Mr. Davis receive. Francishes go through up and downs, and we may still be down for a few more years but the laughing stock days in Oakland are done. What make's me laugh is that most Raider Haters cheer for teams that have not won a thing, we can at least say we have won championships and Super Bowls, and are NOT done yet.

GRUDEN was to blame for the past 5 years. When he came in, he helped to overload us with a bunch of overpriced veterans. And when he knew they would be breaking down, he got out of town as quickly as he could. Al got what he could for Gruden.... knowing Gruden wouldn't be sticking around anyway. After YEARS of being able to reload, not rebuild, the franchise finally had to rebuild. Have there been free agent busts? Yes, but what other team hasn't had them? How about draft misses? Again, show me a team that hasn't missed on a draft pick or two. Most of the so called "busts" were considered great picks at the time. Does Al make dumb decisions some times? Yes, but he isn't infallible.... However, the majority of the time, he makes the right call. I don't care who we had coaching from 2003-2007, with the lack of talent, they wouldn't have been able to do anything. When he fired Kiffin, everyone said Al had lost his mind, but ask the people in Knoxville about Kiffin now. When he sold Gruden, everyone thought he had lost it, but look at what the players in Tampa are saying about "chuckie" anymore. And truthfully, if you look at Shannahan's record minus John Elway and Terrell Davis, he was at best a .500 coach. Al still knows what does and doesn't work. Give Cable a shot, he is after all, a true Raider fan. That wants to make this team a winner.. not so he can collect a paycheck, but because he's tired of us being a laughing stock himself. Russell's numbers look fine for the youngest QB in the league.. especially considering he had NO help from the WR's early in the year. Cable took over an absolute mess from Kiffin's disaster, and managed to turn it around in less than a season in my opinion. The offense scored more than 24 points in each of the last 4 games... They beat a good Houston team and a Tampa team that had the playoffs on the line in their own back yard. Not to mention the "revenge" factor for Monte for the way Davis supposedly did his son wrong. After Tampa erased a 10 point lead, they still came back and won. They have a great pair of starting RB's, a QB that had better numbers in 15 games last year than Elway had in his first 15 games (despite having 3 different playcallers, and no help from his WR's early), as well as the best CB in the game, and some other young talent on D that has never been used properly thanks to Buddy Jr. For all the fans that hate "Davis", and say that we'll go no where as long as he's alive, p*ss off and go root for the next bandwagon winning team.

Totally agree, when the times are bad some people solely blame Al. The second times are good do they praise Al ? Course they dont.

We draft a player who doesnt work out and its Al's fault as it was 'his' pick, the second a player does well thats never an Al pick is it ? Al haters moaned when he drafted Nmandi.A, years later theyre silent as hes the best CB in the league.

The last 5 years have been tough, has Al sat on his backside not signing any one in free agency ? Of course not, yes granted last year was terrible but past offseasons hes opened his wallet. For every DeAngelo Hall theres a Derrick Burgess (Who was injured in Philly and people thought his signing was OTT).

At the end of the day these players get paid millions and have to perform, we have a lot of young talent on this team and should turn the corner. Will Al get the praise then ? Course he wont.

I'm a huge fan of Al's, the last 5 years we have also been unlucky, Porter getting injured in 2003 messed up our offense as Rice/Brown couldnt do it alone. We then lose Gannon.

2004 we lose Gannon again, everyone is happy we have Kerry Collins but then everyone turns against him !

Collins did well for us but when you have the 30th/32nd defense 'helping' you Collins was never going to win many games. But as usual people blamed the QB not the terrible defense.

Everyone admires a winner and everyone depises a loser. Al Davis's relationship with the NFL is one of a maverick, bucking the establishment by suing the NFL when they denied the his stadium in L.A.. Now that Al runs a dysfunctional organization the media just pours it on him. In fact with the way the media has badmouthed the Raiders this year you would never know that their are six teams picking ahead of the Raiders in the upcoming draft.

you've got to be kidding me with this drivel! what are you doing, positioning yourself for a job with the organization? questioning the authority of the only person with power in the organization, and placing most of the blame on the one constant throughout the last six dismal seasons is no reason to call a true fan of the raiders a fair-weather fan and i resent that comment!

there is no question that davis has acquired a wealth of football knowledge and that he desperately WANTS his team to be a winner, but he just doesn't seem to know when stepping back is a better option than sticking your nose into everything. having a rich football acumen doesn't mean that you are qualified to run a franchise without a front office executive, or a GM, or act as if you know more about what's good for the team than the coach you hired. maybe the coaches don't listen to him enough, but you can't argue the fact that he indeed does too much talking. kind of like your know-it-all sibling, who might actually have some good pointers, but you're so sick of listening to them tell you what to do, you rarely listen anymore.

i have been overly impressed with his ability to find "diamonds in the rough" as far as coaching prospects, but he quickly tarnishes that by micro managing to the point the coach no longer wants to be there. you don't hire someone to run the team and then call the shots for them. if he is so interested in things being done his way, he should just put on the headset himself and we'll really see how much he knows about football in the current era!!

davis is a feeble old man and is past his prime. its sad because he was once a great owner. that ship has sailed, and while the team may be good in the coming years, i fear they will never be great again until he is gone. i hope i'm wrong!

Finally...someone gets it.

I understand Al's contributions to the league, there's little doubt that the NFL is what it is today because of him.

However, he is the man in charge. There is no one else who has the last say on ALL decisions that are made in Raiderland, from the draft to free agency. Coaches you say? They're there to take the blame when the team fails, and to nod in his direction when it succeeds.

The losing of the last five years is attributed directly to him. This has nothing to do with being a Raider fan or not. This is called honesty, and accountability - something that, unfortunately, the Raiders have moved away from. Here's hoping that 1. Al lets his coaches run the draft and free agency, 2. he lets them discipline the players, and supports their decisions whether they prove to be right or wrong. And for the love of all things sacred, stay away from the media

Good call, I agree. Too many people don't pay attention to the fact that Al never throws interceptions, drops passes, fumbles, misses a tackle, or gets a penalty. But somehow it's all Al's fault. People just don't make sense. Thanks for the reality check.

Al Davis never played football. He coached college football, but he never played.

I love those delusional Raider fans who talk about how great Al Davis is. I will admit Al has done a lot. The key is to remember we are talk about the present. We have not won a championship in 25 years. Al has been at the helm of each one of those years since. When people talk about Al it is usually a history lesson filled with tales from the days of yore. The Madden era, The AFL and the early 80’s. Al “WAS” a great man. Today that is not the case. If Al were a coach or GM he would have been fired long ago. Who makes all the decisions? That is who is at fault.

hey amber, why don't you go and have his baby? gee, you're all wet over this guy!

So this record-breaking losing streak is just an accident, just as overpaying injured and under-performing players, players with character issues, and sticking with a DC that failed miserably year after year? It's ok to NOT staff your exec offices with a GM and personnel director? It's ok that the man will be 80 years old when the 2009 kicks off, but has provided no contingency plan for his, or his wife's possible unexpected illness (which happens when you're 80)?

Al Davis is longer equipped to handle all that he used to, but guys like you just don't get that. Just like Davis, you want to live in the past, while the rest of the NFL passes you by. Ok, I give up. I'll just keep replaying tapes of the Raiders' SB victories, and you wake me up when the maddness is over.

Raider Joe wrote:

<quoted text>
Have you not been paying attention to the Detroit Lions?

What does that mean? The ex-Raider, Matt Millen-led Lions? Have the Raiders dropped so low that fans compare them to the Lions to see who's worse? Even with the Lions' 0-16 record this year, the Raiders have a worse record since 2003.

This has become a what have you done for me lately league why should Davis be above the rest when the product he puts on the field is inferior. Even Rich Gannon said it is a tough place to play that it's not the type of organization that promotes winning in it's day to day operations. Every year their are players who get big raises from Davis then break rules or don't play up to expectations. Didn't Sands punch Lechler in the face with no punishment?

How can you defend a man who thought that Art Shell and Tom Walsh would restore the greatness of the Raiders?

Its not AL?? Then pray tell Amber, who is it? Lets see, is it all the coaches he has hired and fired? Or all the bums that he drafted over the years? If not then it must be the great free agent moves he has made the last 6 years? Pull your head out Amber, Al Davis makes ALL the moves and deserves ALL the blame. He is a senile old fart who needs to be in a nursing home, not in an owners box of an NFL team. Get a clue.

Y-A-W-N!

The people that say, "The Raiders cant win with Davis in control" and "The game has passed Al by" are engaged in group think. It is hard for a logical person to say that something that has happened several times before will NEVER happen again.

Group think infects all walks fo life,; it is not exclusive to football.

Good day.