The pros and cons of hiring Cable

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, February 05, 2009  |  Comments( 11 )

Oakland Raiders
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All right, so it’s now official: The head coach of the 2009 Oakland Raiders will be Tom Cable. While not exactly this writer’s first choice, a stance overly well-documented here at RealFootball365.com, as an unbiased observer who believes the silver and black can actually make something of next season, I’m trying to let Cable win me over. The pros and cons keep wrestling for my affections over and over, however...

Pro: Cable is a familiar face in Oakland. The players know him and seem to have a decent relationship with him. Plus, the former offensive line coach must have done/said correct in Al Davis’ eyes to keep the position; you can’t just walk in and buy that sort of necessary relationship with Uncle Al. Hiring Cable at least saved time and should allow the team to hit the ground running.

Con: Maybe the Raiders should have gone with an outsider. After having gone 24-72 in the past six seasons, perhaps the team should have looked far outside the organization for a fresh perspective. And while Cable worked the line into something resembling shape with a neat zone-blocking scheme, didn’t he rise through the Raiders a tad rapidly? Though he’s been with the team and coached 12 games in 2008, the Cable signing still feels like something of a question mark.

Pro: Cable represents a low-key, low-profile signing. The last things Oakland need right now is a celebrity-level coach and any sort of press event which involves a certain team owner deploying an overhead projector. Feeling no distractions – and we’re talking Javon Walker here, too – is a healthy state in which to be. And kudos for Davis et al for not, as many a cynical observer had predicted, announcing the decision as a distraction during Super Bowl week.

Con: Of course, hiring a low-key guy didn’t exactly work in Detroit. And how’s that master of mellow working out in Dallas these days?

Con: The first six games of the Cable Era were brutal. I know, I know, already this “run” was ages ago in NFL terms, but it’s a serious challenge to get over the traumatic awfulness of this half-dozen games chock full of limp play calling topped only by limper performance from the players. And the tendency to endlessly call the run-run-incomplete sequence showed numerous signs of continued existence right through Week 17. Pray for Al Saunders, friends.

Pro: The final six games. You can’t complain about a 3-3 stint these days, and if the 2009 Raiders were to finish at .500, surely half their fans would be satisfied. And though the team looked truly brutal against the white-hot New England Patriots in Week 15 – as would the NFC champion Arizona Cardinals one week later – by season’s end, you could clearly glimpse the overwhelming potential of young playmakers JaMarcus Russell, Darren McFadden, Michael Bush, Johnnie Lee Higgins, Chaz Schilens and Zach Miller all impressed. Cable could well be the guy to shape these dudes into winners.

Pro: Cable brings his mother, a woman destined to make the YouTube rounds, along. I don’t know much about Mrs. Cable, but the lady immediately worked her way into my heart via Cable’s Wikipedia entry. Check it out: The first paragraph concludes with the unattributed line “His mother remains stunned that the Raiders gave him a head coaching job.” Brilliant! Even more mysterious, because the original source is obfuscated, is exactly who entered this line into the "autobiographical stub" ... Cable's mother herself, perhaps?

Con: Creation of a monster. Let’s just hope the Momma Cable story doesn’t reach anywhere near the nauseating overkilled levels of the Daddy Fitzgerald thing.

Pro: It’s over. With the head man hired, now the Raiders may have enough time to formulate a proper coaching staff capable of sticking around and avoiding tawdry inter-personnel backstabbing. The Cable hiring represents a step forward into the future, never a bad thing and none too soon for the 2009 Raiders.

Con: None here. Congratulations, Mr. Cable! Now get to work on those draft prospects! (P.S. - Remember to draft a *^*!#^%*ing lineman.)
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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