Mike Tice Guilty Of “A Little Bit of Babying” Last Year’s Offensive Line?

When Jon Gruden brought Tom Cable with him to the Raiders, the hire wasn’t met with overwhelming optimism.

Cable struggled to protect Russell Wilson with his offensive line in Seattle and the former Raiders head coach obviously had his own history in Oakland going back to the Al Davis years.

So far, though, the swap of Cable and Mike Tice has been well received by the offensive linemen.

On Tuesday, Kelechi Osemele spoke to the media and talked about the differences between Cable and Tice, including an interesting description of Tice’s approach.

“I would say that with Cable it’s definitely one of those things where it’s a challenge and a strain mentally. He kind of wants to try and ‘d— you’ as he would say, like kind of mess with you a little bit. Kind of see if he can catch you with some trick questions and stuff like that and make sure you actually studying and stuff like that. With [Mike] Tice it was kind of straightforward coaching guys, maybe a little bit of babying here and there, but [it’s] just like tough coaching with Cable.”

Whatever happened last year between Tice and the Raiders last year has never been fully revealed, but the sides didn’t exactly part ways amicably. In fact, the 2017 season may have pushed Tice out of the NFL’s coaching carousel for good.

In February, Tice pointed to players as the reason why he is strongly considering retirement.

After 35 years as NFL player, assistant coach and head coach, Mike Tice, 59, tells us he thinks he is ready to call it a career. Says players no longer want to be coached.

— Dan Barreiro (@DanBarreiroKFAN) February 4, 2018

A report in February called Tice a divisive force inside the Raiders locker room – a report that was never explained, but may have had something to do with a series of fabricated stories that led to the departure of former offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave.

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