A lot went well for Jack Del Rio in his first two seasons with the Raiders.
The truth is, Del Rio did a lot to change the culture in Oakland and he was better than anything the Raiders had experienced in years.
Del Rio’s issue was that he simply couldn’t sustain it.
Del Rio brought discipline when he arrived in Oakland, but some believe he took his foot off the gas after getting the offseason contract extension.
It wasn’t uncommon, I’ve been told, for Del Rio to be hard-nosed with less prominent players and in the next breath take a light-hearted approach to mistakes made by better-known players on the roster.
Long before players became uncomfortable with Del Rio, it seems Del Rio had gotten too comfortable with too many of the players.
To make matters worse, players like Michael Crabtree fell out of favor with coaches and slipped into some of the bad habits they hadn’t shown in years.
And he wasn’t the only one.
Slowly there became a mess to clean up and it was clear Del Rio wasn’t the man to clean it up – in part because the mess was created right under his nose.
There was no conspiracy theory that sunk the Raiders season – it was simply a youthful roster that wasn’t ready to take the next step without strong leadership from the coaching ranks.
Del Rio deserved a bit friendlier departure, but the decision by Davis to move on was a wise one.
After a season without Bill Musgrave, the Raiders needed a schematic upgrade, but as much as anything, they needed a head coach who could bring back the discipline Del Rio had let slip away.
Jon Gruden was the perfect pick to bring back both.
twitter: @raidersbeat
DAAAAAM STRAIGHT! LET’S MOVE ON NOW! ENOUGH TALK & GET TO WORK!… GRUDEN GOT’S THIS ..
Del Rio was a big part of the problem, but whoever made the decision to fire Bill Musgrave and retain Ken Norton Jr. should also share a lot of the blame. I addition, the reason for signing Marshawn Lynch (to retain the Oakland fan base interest and keep butts in the seats) was the wrong reason. From Marshawn’s perspective, knowing that he could behave any way he wanted to without fear of retaliation. Thus the reason Del Rio was buddy buddy with him and failed the show discipline.
“I told you so” is not something I ever relish saying and try to avoid it. BUT. I’ve been typing the same thing for months now that JDR’s team has shown a lack of LEADERSHIP all season. As a retired Marine I know a thing or two about it and have been in units that suffered from a lack of it. The majority of the issues I’ve seen plague the team this year, beyond obvious roster holes, could be explained by a lack of leadership. No, coaches don’t throw, catch, run or tackle. They do teach, train, discipline, and LEAD. Many of these young players still require all these elements. I don’t know if Gruden is the answer. I know Raider Nation is excited and he said all the right words at his introduction. I’m only interested in the W/L column and another Lombardi Trophy. I’m a FANatic. And this team deserves better leadership than they had this season.
With all due respect to raider nation, as I am a die hard raider, Del Rio wasn’t the reason things went wrong this year but he was the reason it didn’t get corrected. Let me explain. Del Rio didn’t drop passes, throw interceptions, fumble the ball or miss tackles. What was Del Rios fault was allowing these mistakes and not making it a big deal. JDR knows football but didn’t want to upset the franchise quarterback so he let mistakes go uncorrected. Yes firing him was harsh after one bad season but it was the right decision.
The stars are aligned just right…..finally!