Dennis Allen has been the head coach for two years now, but his time could be winding down with the Raiders.  If 2014 is the same as his previous seasons, Allen will be packing his bags looking for a job elsewhere.

In his two seasons with Oakland, Allen is 8-24, going 4-12 in both seasons, showing absolutely no improvement with this team.  He also has a road record of 2-14 as his Raiders greatly struggle in enemy territory.  

Granted, the Raiders don’t have an ideal roster, but Allen has made poor decisions as the head coach.  He shuffled his quarterbacks as the season ended between Terrelle Pryor and Matt McGloin and the coach took quite a bit of heat for such decisions.  Allen has also lacked in making second half adjustments, with the Raiders coming out strong, taking early leads, then faltering in the third and fourth quarters.

The 2014 season is Allen’s make or break year.  Excuses can be made for his first two seasons, but with a roster that will be improved due to an increased salary cap of $63,550,126 there are no more excuses.  The Raiders will also have the fifth pick in the draft, which is full of many talented players, providing them plenty of options with their first round pick.  

Allen isn’t the type of coach to show a lot of emotion throughout the game or get his players riled up.  He is on the quiet side and has called these last two seasons a “deconstructive” phase in Oakland.  While this is a franchise in rebuilding mode, no player on any roster wants to hear that they are part of deconstructing a team.  

Allen hasn’t shown that he has what it takes to be a head coach, and some have questioned why he still has a job in Oakland.  However, what it comes down to is there was no one more qualified to take the job, nor anyone on the market general manager Reggie McKenzie or owner Mark Davis wanted.  Oakland has not had consistency at the coaching position in some time, and that is what they are looking for here.  They want to give Allen a chance with a solid roster and see what he can do with this team moving forward.

So, what exactly does Allen have to do next season to stay?  Playoffs should always be the goal for any team, but realistically, Allen just has to show improvement to keep his job.  After two 4-12 seasons, he needs to get this team eight or nine wins in 2014 to continue being the head coach of the silver and black.  No more excuses; the Raiders will have the money to improve this team by retaining some of their key free agents, while adding the missing pieces to the puzzle.

There’s also the possibility that if the team is off to a poor start, going on a losing streak, Allen could potentially be fired midseason with assistant Tony Sparano taking over.  2014 is a make or break year for Dennis Allen.  If Tom Cable and Hue Jackson were able to coach a less than perfect roster to 8-8 records with playoff hopes, Allen should be able to do that and more in his third year.  The expectations will be high and he will have to deliver with an improved record of 8-8 or better.