Derrick Burgess, the 2006 NFL sack leader, was the only player on the Raiders to be named to the 2007 Pro Bowl roster.

Nnamdi Asomugha, the player arguably having the best season on a reasonably stout Raiders defense, was a notable omission. The cornebacks were Denver’s Champ Bailey and Jacksonville’s Rashean Mathis, with Baltimore’s Chris McAlister in reserve.

Selections were announced on the NFL Network while the Raiders were meeting before practice.

During the open locker room session before practice, defensive tackle Warren Sapp attempted to work his cell phone to find out who had made it, but came up empty. At one point, Sapp said he was calling the commissioner’s office, and barked, “Get me Goodell!”

He came up empty.

Coach Art Shell said he hopes Doug Gabriel will arrive today and that it’s possible he could be active when the Raiders host the St. Louis Rams Sunday at McAfee Coliseum.

To make room for Gabriel, claimed off waivers Wednesday after being released by the New England Patriots, the Raiders put defensive end Lance Johnstone on injured reserve.

Johnstone has been battling a broken left toe and a damaged right knee for the past few weeks, and was scheduled last week to visit a specialist in Alabama to determine if knee surgery was necessary.

For reasons only the Raiders understand, LaMont Jordan, who has already declared himself out for the season, remains on the 53-man roster.

While Gabriel could be in uniform Sunday, it isn’t necessarily to rush him back on the field in a belated attempt to relclaim the starter’s role he held upon his surprise departure on Sept. 2.

Randy Moss is questionable with an ankle injury sustained against Cincinnati and did not practice Wednesday. Trainers told Shell not to count Moss out, but you wonder if Moss has any desire to return.

Jerry Porter remains doubtful with a hip flexor injury. Shell said he doesn’t know how Porter was injured and has no idea how long he’ll be out. Porter has been in deep freeze for so long now, it might take the rest of the season just to thaw him out.

So Gabriel, with a working knowledge of the system, was a logical choice.The Raiders drafted Gabriel in the fifth round, got a fifth-round draft pick when they traded him (the pick was not conditional, they get to keep it) and who knows, with any luck will use that fifth round pick to take another receiver.

Who then could be traded for another fifth-rounder at some point in the not-too-distanct future.

Take a step back for a moment and the re-acquisition of Gabriel is interesting and a little amusing but not overly significant.

Gabriel has some skills as an outside threat but doesn’t play in the slot, and isn’t considered adept at finding soft areas in zone defenses. He could make some spectacular catches, but also mishandle some easy ones.

True, it was strange that the Raiders would dump a starter on the day of the final cut, but it wasn’t an earth-shaking transaction. You may question Oakland’s judgement on letting him go, but what about the evaluation skills of Bill Belichick?

Belichick got 12 games out of Gabriel and said thanks, but no thanks.

Considering Gabriel has done enough to escalate his contract to $1.7 million next season from the scheduled $545,000, there’s no guarantee he will be with the Raiders any more than the final three games of the season.

News and notes from Wednesday:

– No word on what number Gabriel will wear. John Madsen has his No. 85.

– How is it exactly that Terrell Owens isn’t a Raider? The T.O. soap opera would fit in perfectly here. He’s talking now about not playing well because he’s not in a good mood, and about informers in the locker room in Dallas, pulling a rare Moss-Shell double.

– Left tackle Robert Gallery got in some practice Wednesday. Shell said he was encouraged, but wants to make sure Gallery can both absorb a blow and deliver one before putting him back in the starting lineup.

– Left guard Barry Sims isn’t in the starting lineup any time soon, no matter how healthy he is. Shell’s answer to a Sims question was the same sort of terse “coaches decision” answer which has accompained Porter queries for weeks.

– You can breathe easy on the Nnamdi Asomugha injury. He’s listed as probable and practiced Wednesday. Still not sure what it is, though. Shell said after the game it definitely wasn’t a knee injury.

That was moments before Asomugha said it was a knee injury. Now it’s listed as a quadriceps injury.

– Quarterback Aaron Brooks has won one of his last 15 starts.

I’ve played as hard as I can to my fullest in the system, trying to come out with a victory,” Brooks said. “It’s not really eating away at me but it’s one of those subconscious things where I say, `Dang, I don’t have one as a Raider.’ ”

– With Justin Fargas struggling as a starting running back since Jordan went down, I floated the idea of promoting Zack Crockett or ReShard Lee to the primary back, with Fargas going back to his role as a reserve since he seemed to run better that way.

“No, I think Justin will be fine,” Shell said. “Of course, I think we need to run Zack a little more than we have because he has the capability of carrying the ball. We’ve just got to get the right plays for Justin. Plays that he can excel at and we can get as many hats on as many people as possible so he can do the rest.”

More carries for Crockett? I’ll believe it when I see it. Norv Turner said that about every other week last season and Shell has said it a few times this year. It never happens.

– What do Edgerrin James (Arizona), Frank Gore (San Francisco), DeAngelo Williams (Carolina), Maurice Morris (Seattle), Larry Johnson (Kansas City) LaDainian Tomlinson (San Diego), Noah Herron (Green Bay) and Mike Bell (Denver) have in common?

They are all running backs who gained more than 100 yards in a game against St. Louis. Gore did it twice. I’d never even heard of Noah Herron until Wednesday.

Whoever the Raiders pick to run the ball Sunday, if they don’t gain any ground, it’s not going to happen at all.

Doug Gabriel was drafted in part for his ability to deep, but this time is being told to run a comeback route.

Traded to the New England Patriots during the final cut to 53 players, the Raiders claimed Gabriel off waivers Tuesday, a day after he was waived by the New England Patriots.

The Tennessee Titans also put in a waiver claim, but the Raiders got his rights because of a worse record.

Gabriel caught 25 passes for 344 yards and three touchdowns with New England, but fell out of favor after losing a key fumble in a 17-14 loss to the New York Jets on Nov. 12.

Traded for a fifth-round draft pick, Gabriel’s deal was a surprise considering his status as a starter.

His return gives Oakland added depth considering the status of starting wide receiver Randy Moss (ankle) and Jerry Porter (hip flexor).

Neither Moss nor Porter practiced Wednesday, with Ronald Curry and Alvis Whitted lining up with the first team.

By claiming Gabriel off waivers, the Raiders also pick up his contract, which according to a league source escalates to $1.7 million next season from its original $545,000 based on playing time.

Making Rob Ryan the head coach of the Raiders would do nothing to solve their biggest problem and could undermine their lone strength.

Colleague Carl Steward wrote in Tuesday’s ANG Newspapers that Ryan could be the answer for what ails the Raiders.

It’s a tempting thought. Here you have a guy who has some obvious leadership skills, given his ability to mold a smart, aggressive young defense which has been tight-knit and team-oriented.

The Oakland defense has operated as a family within a family, sticking together and refraining from bashing an offense that has let them down on a weekly basis.

Ryan has some fire and a sense of charisma and bravado the Raiders could use at the top. And if they ever mandate all the head coaches to wear suits for a week in the manner of Mike Nolan and Jack Del Rio, seeing Ryan decked out in Sunday bests would be worth the hire in itself.

A couple of problems, one of which is less of an issue than the other.

First, if Ryan is the head coach, then he’s not the defensive coordinator any more. If his successor allows slippage, then you’ve weakened the unit around which the team is building its future success.

Admittedly, as a defensive-minded head coach, Ryan would be essentially a de-facto coordinator anyway, implementing a philosophy if not making adjustments himself.

The guess here is if Ryan were elevated, his successor would be Don Martindale, a longtime Ryan family friend who has also worked on staff with Rob’s twin brother Rex in college at the University of Cincinnati. 

Martindale and Ryan are inseperable. They’re neighbors in Livermore, drive in to work together, take post practice laps togehter. Martindale probably has a better idea of Ryan’s defensive vision than anyone else except maybe Buddy Ryan, and the old man is done with coaching.

But even if there is a viable replacement for Rob Ryan, it doesn’t even begin to address the problems on offense.

Ryan can’t make the Raiders block better. Think Randy Moss and Jerry Porter would snap to attention simply because Ryan gave the command? Guess again. They want to know what’s in it for them, and the only person who can supply that knowledge is the offensive coordinator.

No question Ryan has his ideas of what is wrong with the Oakland offense, having seen it every day in practice. But he’s not the man to implement it. He has been a defensive coach since birth.

Defense is not Oakland’s problem. That side of the ball, they ought to leave alone.

It’s offense which should undergo massive change. I don’t think this is a unit with massive across-the-board ability. But it could at least be somewhere in the middle of the road, and with this defense, that’s all it would take to get to .500 and beyond.

If the Raiders go down without a fight, with three losses similar to the one that just transpired in Cincinnati, it’s possible a 2-14 season and a fade-to-indifference finish could cause Al Davis to fire Shell or coax him upstairs after one year.

It’s more likely Shell gets another year, with the ill-fated Tom Walsh decision taking the fall for a lost season. John Shoop’s first two games have brought shorter passes and a different look, but lots of mistakes and no additional points.

It’s hardly fair, considering how far along the Raiders were in the season before Shoop took the job, but it may not be worth giving him another year because the wise thing may be to simply start over with a new coordinator and a blank canvas.

The same thing will have to happen if Ryan were named head coach, and it is that hire _ and not the elevation of Ryan _ that will determine if Oakland can begin to turn things around.

Davis extended Ryan’s contract before he hired Shell, so he’s not going anywhere for at least two more seasons, and it’s unlikely he’ll receive any head coaching opportunities before then. To be blunt, the Raiders have had one good defense in his three years.

It’s not impossible Ryan could eventually be Shell’s successor. For his sake, he’d be better off taking the job when the offense is in a better place.

Like the end zone once in awhile.

CINCINNATI _ The Bengals spared the Raiders the indignity of punching in a final touchdown, with Anthony Wright kneeling on the ball inside the Raider 5-yard line rather than run up the score.

The Raiders, 2-11, have lost 10 consecutive road games.

I’ll admit it if you will.

A lot of us thought Nnamdi Asomugha would never amount to much.

He looked the part of a Raiders cornerback, but played way off of receivers, reliniquishing everything underneath, and still managed to get beat deep once in awhile.

When Asomugha managed to get anywhere near a football, it was as if someone had stitched his thumb to his pinky on both hands. Banging two trash can lids together made less of a racket than Asomugha going for an interception.

For three years, the assembled media at Raiders training camp has turned away in horror at some of Asomugha’s drops. Some of them were right out of the Rickey Dudley Hall of Fame _ hands to facemask to hands and then falling harmlessly to the ground.

Flash forward to 2006, and Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson is talking up Asomugha and fellow corner Fabian Washington as if they were Hayes and Haynes all over again.

Asomugha has five interceptions, has been a sure tackler and has stuck to his man like glue on countless passes that have fallen incomplete. Five interceptions, by the way, was Oakland’s team total in 2005 and five more than Asomugha had in his first three seasons.

So I was wrong.

What happened?

One, Asomugha is worker. Art Shell was talking the other day about how Asomugha stayed after practice to work on catching the ball. Usually the thrower is strength coach Jeff Fish, who must have been a quarterback at some point because he throws a pretty nice pass.

I don’t recall for sure, but Asomugha was probably out there working as Shell spoke, because he’s out there almost every day. Jerry Rice used to do that, even though he’d already been Jerry Rice for some time.

Haven’t seen Randy Moss working late even one time, but I digress. Asomugha has worked on catching the ball.

Asomugha has also worked on the mental game. He was a frequent visitor to Rod Woodson’s Pleasanton home even after Woodson retired, watching film and learning his craft.

A few times this season, Asomugha has been in the secondary and had thrown the ball directly to him, and it’s not all luck. It’s because he had a pretty good idea where the ball was going, because of his own study and all those Woodson sessions.

Another thing in Asomugha’s favor has been stability. He’s remained in one position and learned how to play on the island. No more experiments at safety, where a lot of people, including yours truly, figured he’d be all along.

Last off-season, I’d have told you Asomugha was a typically bad Raiders pick. A guy who fit the profile of what they wanted in a cornerback but who lacked the football instinct and actual skill to achieve it. One of those guys who the Raiders say “looks good coming off the bus.”

Like most in the media (in football we’ve got six days of stories to write in between games), I hit a sour note more often than I’d like to admit. This is one of those times, but Asomugha seems like such a solid guy and is such a diligent worker, I don’t mind admitting it.

That said, the skeptic in me says Asomugha could be in for a long day Sunday. I think the Raiders defense is good _ maybe very good.

We’ll know more after the Cincinnati game. Part of me says Oakland’s defensive success is in some part due to opposing offenses pulling in the reins because they know the Raiders can’t score.

Their No. 1 passer rating it may have a lot to do with the opposing passing games they’ve faced.

As much as I like San Diego’s Philip Rivers, he’s essentially a rookie. David Carr plays for the Texans. Jake Plummer got benched in Denver and the Raiders got Trent Green on his first day back from a severe concussion. Charlie Frye of Cleveland gouged them for a couple of big drives, and the 49ers Alex Smith had one of his best days as a pro against Oakland.

And here comes Carson Palmer, who as a passer is up there with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the best in football. He’s got the NFL’s hottest wide receiver on his side in Johnson, plus T.J. Housemandzadeh, another play-maker.

Every bit as important is the fact that he’s got Willie Anderson at right tackle, a guy who might have a chance to keep Derrick Burgess under control.

If Palmer has time to pass, neither Asomugha or Washington, not to mention Haynes and Hayes, would have much of a chance.

It could be a long afternoon for Asomugha.

He has, of course, proved me wrong before.