Jack Del Rio has already been hard at work putting together a coaching staff in Oakland. They’ve been through several interviews seeking coordinators and assistants and have already completed a few hires to get this team going in the right direction.
Greg Olson had been the Raiders offensive coordinator the past few seasons and had no success with a young offense. His play calling was questionable at best, and the offense showed great struggle. Del Rio and the Raiders front office conducted interviews with a few candidates of high stature before making the hire of Bill Musgrave.
Musgrave returns to the Raiders who gave him his first coaching job in 1997 as a quarterbacks coach, he has experience in the league, and most recently with the Philadelphia Eagles under a Chip Kelly ran offense. The Eagles offense ranked fifth in the league and their coaching staff put an emphasis on the run game; an area the Raiders ranked 32nd this season. Musgrave has said he will look to implement some of what he learned from Kelly into the Raiders offense in 2015.
Oakland’s offense had the most three and outs this season and overall was ranked last in the league. Derek Carr was an attractive piece to the coaching search and provided spark on a depleted offense, but there was only so much the rookie could do with such little around him. Under Musgrave, the Raiders will look to establish a run game early on with Latavius Murray, who provided some excitement in the ground game late in the season. The silver and black’s new offensive coordinator has also worked with Del Rio in the past in Jacksonville with the Jaguars.
The Raiders also hired Brad Seely as the special teams coordinator for 2015. Seely has been in the league since 1989 and joins Del Rio’s staff from the San Francisco 49ers.
Mike Tice will be the Raiders new offensive line coach, Marcus Robertson will be the defensive backs coach, Sal Sunseri will be the linebackers coach, and Todd Dowling will take over as quarterback coach, working closely with Carr and aiding his development.
The Raiders defensive coordinator search continues as there has been several rumors throughout the week regarding interviews and potential hires. Mike Smith is at the top of the list for defensive coordinator due to his great success with the Atlanta Falcons where he went 66-46 in seven seasons and went to the playoffs four times in that span. It has also been rumored that the Raiders were weighing their options in hiring a young college coach as their DC, but Smith would be ideal.
Its only been about a week since Del Rio was hired as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and he is already putting together a pretty good staff. So far these hires have experience in the NFL and some credibility to go along with it. The next big hire will be defensive coordinator which is Del Rio’s most knowledgeable area of the game as he is a defensive minded coach.
It’s no secret the Raiders have been a losing franchise for over a decade now. Their struggles have been constant and change for the better hasn’t been a factor in Oakland for awhile. Now, Jack Del Rio is bringing in his own staff and running things the way he wants to as head coach. He’s building a strong staff, but time will tell how that transfers onto the field come the 2015 season.