Just because it’s been relatively quiet for a few days doesn’t mean all is well with Lane Kiffin and the Raiders.

It turns out that James Lofton has agreed to terms to join the Raiders as an unspecified assistant coach, most likely wide receivers, and although Kiffin conducted the interview, he had nothing to do with the hire.

That bit of news came Wednesday night from a team source I trust, and pretty much ruins my growing belief that things appeared to be working themselves out between Kiffin and owner Al Davis.

This remains a fluid situation.

Kiffin, I’m told, was first informed by a third party not affiliated with the Raiders that Lofton is on his staff.

This is new territory where Davis and Kiffin are concerned in that Davis overruled the coach on a matter pertaining to the offense.

When Kiffin was hired last year he gutted the entire offensive staff, bringing in coordinator Greg Knapp, line coach Tom Cable, quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, wide receivers coach Charles Coe and running backs coach Tom Rathman, while getting Davis’ approval.

Lofton, however, was dropped in Kiffin’s lap, and while he is a Hall of Famer, an ex-Raider and probably a fine coach, this is no way to run a football team.

Things are precarious enough around Raiders headquarters with rumors rampant about Davis requesting a resignation, a letter which reportedly strips Kiffin of his power regarding staff and personnel, and the strange Raiders press release issued by someone other than Kiffin regarding the retention of defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

I’ll call the resignation request and the emasculation letter rumors because I have heard stories but don’t have solid enough sources myself to consider them factual. The information on the Lofton situation comes from a team source who prefers to remain anonymous.

Kiffin can be forgiven for believing Davis is trying to force him out, for while Lofton is a Hall of Fame player and probably a fine coach, he also happened to interview twice for the job Kiffin currently calls his own.

Even if Davis wanted to hire Lofton whether Kiffin liked it or not, an environment in which Kiffin is not told by Davis or anyone in the front office, and instead hears it from someone not affiliated with the Raiders, means there is a serious communication issue between the boss and his most important employee.

None of Kiffin’s choices at this point are too appealing.

The wisest course of action could be to dig in his heels, deal with whatever surprises come and continue to coach his team to the best of his ability. People outside the Raiders’ universe have their own view of how the franchise operates, and if Kiffin gets to six or seven wins, he would be a hot commodity.

Kiffin is paying dearly for not only going 4-12, but for not squelching the Arkansas rumor as well as speculation he wanted to return to college coaching. Whether it was true or not, Davis must have wanted no part of another Jon Gruden scenario, wondering every day if his prodigy had turned ungrateful and was looking to get out of town.

Loyalty is huge with Davis.

If you believe in happily-ever-after, perhaps Kiffin could regain Davis’ trust and and serve out the last two years of his contract, with the Raiders holding options through 2010. That isn’t the way to bet, but if Kiffin gave Davis a winner and got JaMarcus Russell on the track to stardom, all would be forgiven and the boss would be only too happy to take credit for it.

The other option is to resign, forfeiting his salary, at a time where all the good college head coaching and coordinator jobs are already filled, with most NFL options as an assistant exhausted as well.

Lane Kiffin isn’t the only one who hopes he will be the Raiders coach for the 2008 season.

During a guest appearance on “The Jim Rome Show” on radio row at the Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., middle linebacker Kirk Morrison was asked what was going to happen with his head coach.

“I have no idea. He’s under contract to be our head coach,” Morrison said. “I definitely want him back as our head coach. He did a lot for us this year. Just the mindset of the players, he changed the way we practiced. He changed the way we played. There were a lot of football games out there that we didn’t win.

“We felt we got robbed by Mike Shanahan, with the timeout. We didn’t close out a lot of games over the course of the season. We had a lot of fourth quarter leads. We had fourth-quarter leads in six of the 12 losses. You hold onto those, we’re a 10-6 football team fighting to get into the playoffs.

“That’s the attitude we’re trying to move into next year, competing the right way in the fourth quarter and not making mistakes. We made mistakes in the fourth quarter, and that’s not on the coach. That’s on the players. Lane Kiffin is bringing that attitude that we compete the right way and finish football games.”

The Raiders actually held five fourth-quarter leads. They lost the lead on the ensuing possession four of those times, with Detroit, Chicago and Indianapolis taking the lead and Denver coming back to tie.

Howie’s kid

Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long was asked by Rome about his son Chris, a defensive end out of Virginia and the oldest of his three football-playing sons. Long is considered someone the Raiders will take a very close look at with the third or fourth pick in the draft, pending a coin flip with Atlanta.

“If I wanted to have you mauled, I’d send Kyle. He’s 6-7, 290 _ he’s the middle one. If I wanted to have you tortured, I’d send Howie,” Howie Long said. “The one that’s the predator, obviously, is Chris. Chris is a really nice guy. He’s fun to talk to. You’d enjoy meeting him, you’d enjoy talking to him. But when the switch goes on, he will choke you.”

All quiet

A Raiders executive said Wednesday afternoon he was enjoying the quietest day at the facility since the end of the regular season.

Saunders to Rams
Al Saunders signed a three-year contract to become offensive coordinator with the St. Louis Rams.

The Raiders, according to Saunders’ agent Bob LaMonte and another with the Washington Redskins, contacted Washington before Saunders was fired and asked for permission to talk to him. They never followed up and requested an interview even after Saunders was essentially a free agent.

Registration hoax

According to the online editor, the posts regarding registration for this site were someone’s idea of a joke.

I am told there currently are no plans for registration to this blog.

Responses will be moderated as time allows. Sharp criticism and passion can be achieved without name-calling and swearing. Posts with swear words (including the use of characters to replace letters in obvious swear words) will be deleted, although some slip past due to time contraints and volume.

Repeat offenders will have their I.P. banned. Also subject to being banned are those who use the names of others.

Deletions can be admittedly subjective and I often err on the side of caution. If it’s something of questionable taste _ something I wouldn’t want one of my own kids to read _ I’m deleting it. Other moderators may be more liberal. I’m sure registration will be discussed at a later date if the blog continues to grow and too many people can’t play by the rules.

Caught some of Randy Moss speaking about his time with the Raiders Tuesday courtesy of NFL Network.

It reminded me of the time when I asked him about why he seemed to be dropping so many passes, and he responded it was because he wasn’t happy and was in a bad mood.

“Things weren’t really going like I expected them to go, both as an individual and collectively as a team,” Moss said. “People in that organization had high expectations. I got traded there, we had Derrick Burgess, Warren Sapp, so you had a lot of guys that had names . . . I think a lot of things got in the way where football wasn’t really the main priority around there any more.”

No excuse for Moss going in the tank because he was unhappy. None. Not as the highest paid player on the roster, one who was laughably called a “captain” by Art Shell.

But the end of that answer is remarkable when you consider who he is talking about. When Moss says organization, he is talking about Al Davis. Davis is the organization. He is the lone owner in the NFL _ hell, in professional sports _ who was once a coach. He is one of the pioneers of the game, a Hall of Famer.

And here is this huge talent, the kind of player Davis salivates over, saying football wasn’t the main priority with the Raiders. It used to be the only priority.

Misunderstood stars thrived with the Raiders because all they had to worry about was football instead of the layers of miscommunication and confusion which currently emanates from Harbor Bay Parkway.

“Things started getting in the way with coaches and play-calling and stuff like that,” Moss said. “The team-concept was sort of screwed up in Oakland, and really not knowing, I would ever get on this stage, I had to stay positive.”

Moss was in no way “positive” in Oakland, but it has to gall Davis that another environment was more suitable than his own to bringing the best out of football’s most explosive receiver.

Fish to Atlanta

According to the Atlanta Falcons Web site, Jeff Fish was hired as the strength and conditioning coach on the staff of Mike Smith.

Fish has been the Raiders strength and conditioning coach for the past four seasons. Replacing him means they might need another training camp arm. Fish throws a nicer practice pass than some Raiders quarterbacks.

Williams on board

According to the NFLPA logs, Sam Williams is under contract to the Raiders for 2008 for $700,000. He was originally scheduled for unrestricted free agency.

No transactions have been announced by the club since the end of the season. Adimchobe Echemandu has been in the books for a $605,000 salary for a couple of weeks now and it hasn’t been acknowledged by the club.

According to the Raiders Web site, Fish is still the strength and conditioning coach.

The Raiders finished a day-long interview with James Lofton for an undisclosed position and senior executive John Herrera had no announcements other than the interview went well and there could be a resolution in the next day or so.

Lofton, fired last week by the San Diego Chargers, twice interviewed for the head coaching job with Al Davis. His interview this time was with coach Lane Kiffin and offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, according to Herrera, indicating Charles Coe could be on his way out as wide receivers coach.

Having Kiffin and Knapp involved in the hiring of an offensive assistant means any differences the head coach has with owner Al Davis regarding makeup of the defensive staff appear well short of Kiffin either resigning or being fired in the near future.

While stories run rampant of what has gone on behind closed doors since the end of the season, the one I’m certain of is that Kiffin wanted to change defensive coordinators and Davis did not.

I was told today Kiffin’s problem with Ryan is not of a personal nature but one of philosophy. The statement released by Raiders spokesman Mike Taylor was essentially a rebuke to Kiffin.

(Taylor disagrees with this. He called to say Kiffin’s later comments in Mobile about Ryan being under contract and being “excited” about Ryan’s return refute my contention. To me, the key part of that quote was “Rob is under contract.”)

In any event, the fact that Kiffin returned to work and is in the process of making staff changes is the second indication he wants to stay _ the other being his postgame response following the Senior Bowl.

When asked after the game if he would be coach of the Raiders in the fall, Kiffin said, “I hope so.”

Interesting sequence of events as reported by Ira Miller of The Sports Xchange, who said Lane Kiffin fired Rob Ryan before first consulting with Al Davis.

Ryan, Miller reported, went to Davis to thank him for the opportunity, with Davis telling Ryan Kiffin had no authority to fire him.

If true, it was a huge tactical error on Kiffin’s part _ the same error Mike Shanahan made when he attempted to fire Art Shell in 1989. Davis rehired Shell, and when Shanahan was fired during the season, Shell became the head coach.

(I’ve been told things didn’t necessarily transpire in this order, but it’s worth mentioning because I have a lot of respect for Miller).

People who say the Raiders don’t have a general manager are in error. They have a G.M., and his name is Al Davis. Davis doesn’t own a rubber stamp. He needs to be convinced a change should be made.

To make a change without his consent is to invite conflict.

Lofton in town

Former Chargers wide receivers coach James Lofton was visiting with Kiffin in his office Monday morning, according to senior executive John Herrera.

Herrera had no information regarding an interview with Al Saunders. The Raiders, Bay Area News Group beat writer Steve Corkran reported, have made contact with Saunders. Bob LaMonte, the agent for Saunders, confirmed the Raiders had talked to the Redskins about speaking with Saunders before he was fired but that to his knowledge no interview had been arranged.

There is a chance Saunders could be hired by the St. Louis Rams as offensive coordinator before anything transpires in Oakland.

There are no press conferences scheduled.

Millard an issue?
One of the rumors making the rounds at the Senior Bowl is that defensive line coach Keith Millard was told by Kiffin he should explore job opportunities during the week.

The Raiders had a story on Millard on their Web site Sunday which detailed his unique perspective as having been involved in the Senior Bowl as both a player and coach.

The Raiders made strides with their offense and regressed on defense in 2007, but in terms of addressing it with regard to the coaching staff, they’re starting out moving in the other direction.

On offense in 2007, the Raiders went from 12 touchdowns to 28, from 1,519 yards rushing to 2,086 yards, and from 32nd in time of possession to fifth in the NFL.

On defense in 2007, with less time spent on the field, the Raiders gave up 5,446 yards as opposed to 4,557, 5.7 yards per play as opposed to 4.8 and surrendered 46 touchdowns compared to 34.

The response?

The Raiders issue a statement saying Rob Ryan is still the defensive coordinator, and their first two interview subjects for the coaching staff are on offense _ James Lofton and Al Saunders.

The Raiders have confirmed Lofton’s interview. Bay Area News Group beat writer Steve Corkran and others have reported Saunders’ impending visit.

Lofton has interviewed with Al Davis on two occasions for the head coaching job, but senior executive John Herrera said it is for an assistant’s position and that interview will be with Kiffin.

Lofton coached wide receivers for the Chargers until being fired last week and has more NFL experience than Charles Coe, a veteran college coach who had his first NFL season with the Raiders last season.

The Saunders interview is another story. There are only two positions Saunders would be intereviewing for _ head coach and offensive coordinator.

Saunders, like Lofton, has a history with Davis, having interviewed for the Raiders head coaching job twice before removing his name from consideration.

But if Saunders isn’t coming in to talk about Kiffin’s job, then it means offensive coordinator Greg Knapp could be on his way out.

Saunders, as an offensive coordinator with the Rams, Chiefs and Redskins, called all the plays. Kiffin called plays for the Raiders, with Knapp, a play-caller with the both the Falcons and 49ers, taking the Raiders job only after deciding he and Kiffin were comptabile in terms of philosophy.

ESPN is reporting Saunders is also a candidate to be offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams, where he would be the play-caller.

There is almost no way to interpret the interest in Saunders as anything other than an acknowledgement that Davis is preparing for the possibility that Kiffin either won’t call the plays or won’t be the head coach.

And if you take Davis at his word last year when he stressed the importance of having a play-caller as the head coach, it would most likely be the latter.

“One of the attributes was he had to have was the ability to call the plays,” Davis said when Kiffin was hired. “To call the plays, to me, that’s vital in professional football today. Some has to be accountable for calling the plays.”

Bringing Saunders aboard would also mean changes in the offensive system. A radical change would be a setback to JaMarcus Russell, who is only the most important person in the franchise who isn’t named Al Davis.

Raiders and PFT
Interesting to note that the Raiders are sending adverstising dollars to ProFootballTalk.com, the hugely popular rumor and information site which makes its living posting the very stories which the organization spends time trying to refute.

Stripped down the left side of the site is a “Raiders Image” ad, noting the stores are “owned and operated by the Oakland Raiders.

Under-Armour-gate

Yes, Mike Nolan wore the same coat Lane Kiffin did in the Senior Bowl. Nolan also wore a 49ers hat before replacing it with an Under-Armour skull cap in the fourth quarter when the sun went down and the temperature dipped.

Nolan was also wearing 49ers gear all week at practice and in interviews.

At no time when Kiffin was shown on television was he ever wearing a Raiders shirt or visor. According to PFT, the NFL Network’s Adam Schefter and Albert Breer of the Dallas Morning News reported Kiffin didn’t wear anything with a Raiders logo all week.

Kiffin normally coaches wearing a Raiders visor, although not always. He didn’t wear one Saturday.

I was also told Mark Jackson, Kiffin’s administrative assistant who would follow him out the door should he leave, was not wearing Raiders gear in Mobile and spent a lot of time with USC coach Pete Carroll.

Hard evidence that Kiffin is on his way out? Of course not. Just a subtle message that there are some problems to be worked out between the owner and the coach.

Update: Talking to reporters on the field following the Senior Bowl, Lane Kiffin sidestepped questions regarding his status with the Raiders.

Asked if he will be coaching the Raiders in the fall, Kiffin said, “I hope so.”

There are a lot of different ways Lane Kiffin could have shot down reports regarding his demise in the eyes of Al Davis, and reasonable people can agree that saying “I’m not going to comment on anything that transpired in the last three weeks” is not one of them.

Nor is coaching the Senior Bowl in a black Under Armour windbreaker, with the name “Raiders” nowhere in sight. The rest of the staff is adorned in Raiders gear.

It reminds me of the time Jon Gruden showed up to his season-ending press conference the day after a playoff loss to New England in a maroon polo shirt instead of his usual Raiders garb.

Not long afterward, he was on his way to Tampa Bay.

During Saturday’s Senior Bowl broadcast, field reporter Charles Davis said Kiffin told him he didn’t want to comment on rumors that Davis asked for his resignation, essentially the same thing he said the day before.

“He said he didn’t want to comment on anything that happened in the last three weeks to a month, but what I do want to focus on is this game today,” Davis reported Kiffin as saying. “We focused on these kids all week long and coaching them, we’re going to focus on them today in this game. We don’t want to cheat them at all.”

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said he believed the Raiders and Kiffin were negotiating a settlement of his contract, the end result being Oakland would be the first team since the Minnesota Vikings in 1984 (Les Steckel) and 1985 (Bud Grant) to have consecutive coaches who lasted a single season.

A year ago, Kiffin was hailed by Davis as superior to Jon Gruden, glossing over the fact that his first choice was actually Steve Sarkisian, the co-offensive coordinator along with Kiffin at USC. Davis raved about Kiffin’s grasp of the total game and his value as a personnel man because of his background as recruiting coordinator.

It wasn’t just Davis’ refusal to part with Rob Ryan that fractured the relationship, although that was part of it.

The fact is, it became apparent as the season went on that Kiffin and Davis differ philsophically, and many of the things Kiffin did and said no doubt rubbed the boss the wrong way.

Davis believes he has stocked the Raiders with enough talent to be consistent winners.

“We’ve got good players. What I worry about is injuries,” Davis said during a training camp press conference.

Kiffin, looking at the 15-49 record upon his arrival, never bought it. He admitted making final cuts wasn’t all that difficult because the Raiders didn’t have enough good players to make it difficult.

When the Raiders finished the season by facing Green Bay, Indianapolis, Jacksonville and Denver, Kiffin, when assessing how his team had held together, said, it was difficult “when you’re not playing anybody like yourself.”

While perhaps not meant as a jab at Davis’ acquisition of talent, go ahead and assume Davis felt that way.

The week the Raiders played the Colts, Kiffin talked with admiration about a roster stocked with the type of players Davis wouldn’t want.

“Their linebackers are 5-11. They’ve got a 5-9 safety, a 6-foot defensive end,” Kiffin said. “They get a lot of people later in rounds that other people don’t take because of size or because of what they evaluate. They see what other people don’t. In that system, tackling is one of the first things you evaluate, and you can see it. They take people, because they’re really good players, and they tackle real well.”

Davis made it clear during training camp that dealing Randy Moss was Kiffin’s idea.

“If Lane felt that was best for the team I was going to do it,” Davis said. “And we did it. We didn’t get near what we should have. Randy Moss, if he’s well, can still play, in my opinion. Our coaches didn’t think so.”

It couldn’t have set well with Davis when Kiffin blamed him for breeding the culture which Moss wanted no part of.

“Randy had made it very clear to me, his statement was, ‘Coach, this has nothing to do with you. I have already heard great things about what you are doing there already, but I am not going to play for that organization, and I don’t want any part of it. I don’t like the way I have been treated there,’ ” Kiffin told Minnesota writers on a conference call.

“It was out of my control. Randy wasn’t going to play here and he made it very clear, so it was a direction that this organization needed to go because he wasn’t happy and he wasn’t going to play here for whatever reason, the things that happened before I got here.”

Getting rid of Moss was a big part in another Kiffin belief not held by Davis _ team chemistry.

Kiffin made repeated references over the course of the season to “cleaning out the locker room” and ridding it of bad influences.

Davis is on record as saying he doesn’t believe in team chemistry.

Where Kiffin stood on the drafting of JaMarcus Russell is not clear. Leading up to the draft, I was told Kiffin preferred Brady Quinn, but I never heard it from Kiffin himself and misinformation is rampant where the draft is concerned.

When the season was over, Kiffin was no longer a Davis prodigy. He was a 4-12 coach, the same as Bill Callahan and Norv Turner in their final seasons. Kiffin was just two games better than Art Shell who had no right to ask for his own choice as defensive coordinator.

To make matters worse in Davis’ eyes, Kiffin did little to refute rumors which connected him to college jobs at Arkansas, Michigan and UCLA.

A Contra Costa Times poll asked readers “As a Raiders fan who would you rather get rid of, Al Davis or Lane Kiffin?

At last check, Davis had 1,112 votes to be shown the door and Kiffin 31.

When Kiffin accepted the job, he made it clear on several occasions it was on the condition that certain things were in place. He never specified what those things were, but implied it had to do with the makeup of the roster and coaching staff.

Hope he got that in writing.

Lane Kiffin’s comment from Mobile, Ala., site of the Senior Bowl, according to ESPN.com:

“I’m not going to comment on anything that has transpired in the past three weeks,” Kiffin said.

The last three weeks.

Just about the time Kiffin wanted to make a change at defensive coordiantor and the Raiders sent out a release saying Rob Ryan would stay.

It all sounds pretty plausible from here.

At the season-ending press conference, Kiffin was resolute in changes he said were forthcoming with the Raiders. It was also clear he believed he had the power to make those changes happen.

Last in a series analyzing Raiders position groups as they restructure their roster for the 2008 season:

2007: PK Sebastian Janikowski, P Shane Lechler, LS Jon Condo, RS Chris Carr, RS Johnnie Lee Higgins, RS Dominic Rhodes.

Summary: Janikowski and Lechler, the two draft picks Al Davis made to revitalize the kicking game in 2000, enter their ninth season in Oakland.

The past two seasons, Seabass has hit 41 of 57 field goal attempts, a 71.9 percentage that ranks among the worst of regular kickers in the NFL. It’s true that percentage has taken a hit on long attempts _ Janikowski has 18 of his 34 career attempts in the past two seasons from 50 yards or longer and has made nine of them.

Jano also had 22 touchbacks in 2007, tying his career high of 22 set in 2002, and doing it with 30 fewer kickoffs.

When it comes to draft picks, the word “bust” is applied far too liberally. Under no circumstances can a player who is entering his ninth year on the roster be considered a bust.

It’s fair to say, however, that Janikowski hasn’t been the game-changing force the Raiders hoped for when they made him the 17th overall selection 2000.

Lechler is another story, a fifth-round pick that season (No. 142 overall) which will rank as one of Davis’ best picks.

Currently the NFL’s all-time leader with a 46.5 average, Lechler had career highs in gross (49.1) and net (41.1 yardage) in becoming the AFC selection in the Pro Bowl. Lecher put 25 of his 73 punts inside the 20-yard line with just seven touchbacks _ a far cry from the 2006 season when he had 19 balls inside the 20 and 19 toucbacks, admitting he was simply hammering the ball out of site in frustration.

Oakland’s coverage units, who have seldom been consistent regardless of the special teams coach, were no different in 2007. They were bold enough to kick to Chicago return specialist Devin Hester and good enough to stop him in his tracks.

On the other hand, they also gave up touchdown returns in successive weeks to Green Bay’s Will Blackmon (58 yards) and Indianapolis’ T.J. Rushing (90 yards) and were suckered on a reverse for 56 yards by Scott Starks a week later.

The quality of Oakland’s coverage units seemed to parallel the health and availability of Isaiah Ekejiuba and safety Jarrod Cooper. Once Ekejiuba recovered from a foot injury in the preseason finale and Cooper was brought back into the fold after a suspension for violating the NFL policy on steroids and related substances, the Raiders played with energy and enthusiasm.

When Ekejiuba was re-injured and Cooper went down with an ACL tear, the Raiders weren’t remotely the same.

Carr, who handled 59 of the Raiders 78 kickoff returns, averaging just 22.5 yards with along of 53. Carr runs hard and when the Raiders are clicking, he approaches midfield but seldom gets further. Rhodes had just a 19.5 average on 16 returns.

The Raiders were essentially a non-facotr returning punts. Higgins twice was benched for problems holding on to the ball and had just a 5.2 average on 20 returns. Tim Dwight, signed during the season, has a knack for racing up to field punts and not allowing them to bounce backward, saving hidden yardage, but averaged just 6 yards per return.

Carr had nearly as many fair catches (7) and returns (8) and averaged just 6.5.

The Raiders are unlikely to look to the draft or free agency for a kicker. With Lechler there is no need, and Janikowski’s standing with the Davis remains secure.

Longtime Raiders tormentor Jason Elam of Denver is an unrestricted free agent, but is 37 years old and hasn’t kicked off since 2002.

“Problem, what problem? I ‘ve been so busy evaluating the roster I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

That was my best guess in a blog posted sixteen days ago regarding Lane Kiffin’s response when making his first public comment about the status of Rob Ryan, adding that it probably wouldn’t come until the Senior Bowl.

When Kiffin was asked about Ryan Wednesday at Senior Bowl practice in Mobile, Ala., by Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, Kiffin said, “I didn’t really know about those rumors until you told me. Obviously there are no issues there. We’re just looking forward to having a really good week and playing well.”

Kiffin hadn’t heard the rumors . . . . hmmm . . . so that’s why Mike Taylor made the announcement that Ryan wasn’t going anywhere. Now it all makes sense.

(Kudos to the Bee for being the lone newspaper responsible for covering the Raiders and 49ers for finding enough money in their budget to travel to Mobile).