Raiders Flagship Radio Host Explains Part of Why the Offense Was So Inept with Josh McDaniels

One of the best things about Josh McDaniels no longer being with the Raiders (other than the winning), is that we get to finally hear the truth about what was going on behind the scenes.

From the outside, everyone could see that the players weren’t happy, but no one could talk about it. The team was moving in a terrible direction unders McDaniels, but the “glass was always half full” because McDaniels was still in the building.

Now McDaniels is gone and even the Raiders’ flagship radio station is able to talk about the ways he was holding back the team.

JT The Brick is one of the most connected voices on the Raiders and he has some of the best access to the team availabel – in no small part because he takes a paycheck from the team.

So when JT speaks to what goes on behind the curtain, we take notice.

During a segment this week on his daily Raider Nation Radio program, JT talked about one of the big issues with the offense under Josh McDaniels…

“What’s bothering me with the Raiders all year long, and this is not a knock on Bo Hardegree. I think he’s a really good play caller. I never thought he would be an upgrade from Josh McDaniels because Josh McDaniels has six Super Bowls, but Josh McDaniels didn’t do it right here with his offense. Now Bo has the opportunity to simplify this very complex play book that took a long time for the play to come in.

The issue with Josh McDaniels, another one behind the scenes, was difficulty of the verbiage of the play and the play getting in. By the time Coach McDaniels called the play from his sheet, went through the play, gave it to the quarterback in the huddle, because it’s so complex for the quarterback to understand it, and then tell the team what the play is, by the time they got to the line of scrimmage they didn’t have a lot of time.

So I’m hoping that Bo Hardegree takes the playbook that he likes, his plays, and he simplifies it for Aidan O’Connell. Lincoln Kennedy talks about the year they went to the Super Bowl, they only had 14 plays. Rich Gannon, when he went into the huddle would work off those 14 plays.

Maybe if Bo is doing that with Aidan O’Connell they should be running the plays that Aidan is really good at.”

twitter: @raidersbeat