Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
All to easy..

Apologies Fans, it’s not like the notorious Darth Raider has a free press pass.
I’m sitting back just like the rest of you, waiting for qualified coaches to interview and hopefully join my favorite team for the 2009 season.
The force tells me the Head Coaching job still remains a toss up between interim coach Tom Cable and Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride.
Who will win?
Out of those two possible candidates, the majority of you wouldn’t mind to see the Cable guy back. His zone blocking philosophy has brought the running game back to Oakland. Sure, the 2008 stats will tell you we actually slipped in rushing this past year…but I truly believe if D-Mac was healthy; we could of at LEAST been in the top 5 in the NFL.

A local paper also recently suggested another possible candidate for the Oakland Raiders, perhaps you’ve heard of him?…
Jon Gruden.
The newspaper poll suggested that over 75% of the fans would rather have “Chucky” back rather then Cable who was only 4-8 with the club.
Lord, I can’t say I blame them all that much. Gruden resuscitated the moribund Raiders. After uniting with journeyman quarterback Rich Gannon, a mobile and cerebral veteran, the Raiders catapulted into the top of the AFC and made the playoffs three straight seasons.
He brang intensity, intelligence, honesty and toughness to our sqaud and I’m sure the Nation still loves the guy for resurrecting the Raiders. Hell, I still have his autograph.
It’s just too bad he had to leave and eventually kick our ass in the Bowl.
I’ll always believe that he was the only one in the World who could of stopped us that year. He had waaay too much insight on our team, don’t ya think??

It’s also too damn bad Al Davis probably would never even consider bringing him back, despite how he changed the culture aound here.
I’d like to believe Al always thinks of moving his team forwards, instead of backwards..
but didn’t he bring Art Shell back?
Ugh..
Right, we can spend 10 more blogs on fan opinions of the owner…
or we can give more insight on the coaching cadidate you don’t hear enough about.

Since 1990, Gilbride has served as an assistant with a number of NFL franchises, working as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Those franchises include the Houston Oilers (1990-1994), Jacksonville Jaguars (1995-1996), Pittsburgh Steelers (1999-2000), Buffalo Bills (2002-2003), and currently is the offensive coordinator with the New York Giants. From 1985 to 1986 he served as an assistant with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League.
In over three decades as a coach, Gilbride’s most memorable image may be a 1994 sideline incident while he was offensive coordinator for the Houston Oilers, which resulted in defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan throwing a punch at Gilbride during a nationally televised game. Another memorable event occurred during the 1992-93 NFL season when Gilbride was hospitalized with a rare form of kidney cancer and injured quarterback Warren Moon stepped in as acting offensive coordinator.
Sheesh, I hope the guys still in good health.
During his time with the Oilers, Gilbride ran a variation of the Run & Shoot offense. The team finished in the top 5 in scoring each year with Gilbride as offensive coordinator.
Gilbride had previously worked on a Tom Coughlin staff before, serving as the first offensive coordinator in team history for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995 and 1996.
The Oakland Raiders recently received permission to interview Gilbride for their vacant head coach position.

In other news, 2009 NFL Mock Draft “experts” suggest we will take Michael Oher out of Ole Miss to fill in at Right Tackle.

Good Gravy, do we still need receivers….
Can all NFL Owners/GM’s/Coaches just stop paying attention to Mike Crabtree for a wee bit?
“This is not the droid you’re looking for..”

Have a great week, Nation,
-DR