Hall of Famer - James Lofton

by David White

The Raiders have agreed to hire Hall of Fame receiver James Lofton as an assistant coach, though the deal is still being finalized.

What no one can agree on is how the team came to that agreement.

According to a league source, and reported this morning by a local media outlet, Raiders owner Al Davis made the decision to hire Lofton on Wednesday without informing coach Lane Kiffin. This has all the makings of yet another move to undermine Kiffin in their increasingly public power struggle, with Kiffin doing all the struggling.

The Raiders, however, said that couldn't be further from the truth. According to senior executive John Herrera, Kiffin decided to hire Lofton after interviewing him Monday and then passed the salary part of the process to Davis, who is currently negotiating the deal with Lofton.

"Lane vehemently denied that he didn't know about it," said Herrera, who spoke with Kiffin about the news report Thursday morning. "He did know about it. He was part of the interview process and he was totally in the loop. He told Mr. Davis to go ahead and get him on board. He turned it over to the organization to see if the organization could come to an agreement, which every organization does in regards to salary."

This much is clear: the national perception is Oakland has been, and remains, a devastating wreck. From stories about Kiffin's failed attempt to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan to Davis stripping Kiffin of power in a recent letter, the Raiders make it easy to understand why, at 19-61, they have been the worst NFL team of the past half-decade.

Be sure, perception counts for something. When Randy Moss is bashing the organization during Super Bowl week, and former players like Ray Buchanan do the same on NFL Network, their opinions carry weight with other players. One personnel official conceded this is making it that much tougher for the Raiders to re-sign their own free agents, let alone convince top players to come here from elsewhere when the free agent market opens at the end of February.

Stay tuned.

Sam Williams, LB, Re-signed

The Raiders re-signed Sam Williams to a one-year contract Tuesday -- a move that prevents the veteran outside linebacker from hitting the free-agent market next month.

Williams, 27, was a third-round draft pick of the Raiders in 2003. He began last season as a starter but lost his job to Robert Thomas after a shoulder injury.

Also, strength and conditioning coach Jeff Fish accepted a job with Atlanta.

The Raiders did not issue a release on either move. Williams, who attended Clayton Valley High School and Fresno State, couldn't be reached for comment.

Bills: Buffalo signed free agent tight end Teyo Johnson. The four-year veteran out of Stanford has appeared in 30 NFL games and has 26 catches for 288 yards. He was in Denver's training camp in 2007, but after an injury late in the preseason, was waived by the Broncos. A second-round draft pick of the Raiders in 2003, Johnson has also spent time with Arizona and Miami.

Lofton To Talk With Raiders

There has been a lot of talk of change on the Oakland Raiders' coaching staff.

More talking is set for today.

Hall of Fame receiver and recently fired Chargers wide receivers coach James Lofton is scheduled to interview with the Raiders for an unspecified coaching position.
Considering Lofton, a Raider in 1987-88, was a candidate for the head coaching job the past two times the Raiders had an opening, it is unclear what role he would serve if hired. Charles Coe is the receivers coach.

Raiders senior executive John Herrera said Friday coach Lane Kiffin, amid reports he had been asked to resign, would interview Lofton. Herrera denied an ESPN report that owner Al Davis drafted a letter of resignation for Kiffin to sign, though sources confirmed Kiffin was given the letter.

Herrera said Kiffin interviewing Lofton is proof Kiffin isn't on his way out and that his job status is a non-issue. Lofton, 51, wasn't interviewed earlier because the Raiders' coaching staff didn't return until Sunday from coaching in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., where Kiffin refused to comment on his job status.

Question of Loyalty

by Bucky Brooks

Last week, news broke of the Oakland Raiders possibly dismissing Lane Kiffin. The media reaction ranged from shock to humor. But such a move would hardly be surprising to those who have experienced life as a Raider. We understand that loyalty is not only expected, but also demanded from owner Al Davis.

As a former player for the Raiders, I have seen how that loyalty is rewarded. Willie Brown, Jim Otto and George Atkinson are a few of the former Raider greats who continue to have ties with the organization. Moreover, there are countless others who have spent decades working for the organization without the benefit of a written contract.

Lane Kiffin may have underestimated the significance of loyalty when he (or an associate close to him) reportedly inquired about the Arkansas and UCLA jobs near the end of the season. His alleged pursuit of those jobs would be seen as the ultimate act of disloyalty by Davis.

In naming Kiffin the head coach just a year ago, Davis took a chance on an "up-and-coming" college assistant who had limited experience as a coordinator and was not considered a prime candidate for a head coaching job on any level. But Davis has always been a risk taker when it comes to running his football team.

He hired John Madden at the age of 32. Tom Flores became the first minority to win a Super Bowl, also under Davis's guidance, and the Raiders have the highest-ranking woman in league circles, chief operating officer Amy Trask. Davis clearly has a long history of granting unconventional candidates opportunities to lead, but he expects to be rewarded for his acts with loyalty and respect.

Kiffin's alleged pursuits of the aforementioned jobs violated this order, and his rumored attempt to dismiss several staff members without Davis' consent would be another sign of disrespect.

Despite those acts, the decision to jettison Kiffin after one season would be difficult. Kiffin, who led the Raiders to a 4-12 record, appeared to have the team headed in the right direction. His squad was competitive (seven losses by seven points or fewer), organized and played with an energy that hadn't been seen in Oakland in the past two seasons.

Offensively, Kiffin fixed the leaky O-line and orchestrated an attack that ranked sixth in the league in rushing offense. With JaMarcus Russell slated to start in 2008, the Raiders could be a prolific unit. Oakland also has the personnel in place to field a top ten defense for years to come. Thus, the dismissal of Kiffin would squash a lot of the positive buzz that is building around the franchise.

Regardless of how this saga eventually unfolds, Davis' demand for loyalty will not change and those who represent the Raiders must realize that.

Raiders’ Davis, Kiffin have clashed from start

by Ira Miller

The problems between Raiders coach Lane Kiffin and team owner Al Davis, which have flared into open warfare between the two, date almost back to the day when Kiffin was hired a year ago, according to a team source.

As a young, first-time head coach, Kiffin was so eager for the job that he took Davis' word on his responsibilities, and did not get them in writing, a mistake that former Raiders coaches could have warned him about.

Even Kiffin's predecessor, Art Shell, a long-time Davis favorite, was spared further indignity after he was fired because his contract language protected him. Davis wanted Shell to work out his contract as the team's offensive line coach, but language in Shell's contract specifically outlined his duties as the head coach.

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Davis had to pay Shell off.

Now, Davis is trying to avoid paying off Kiffin, so he is trying to make his coach so miserable that he will quit after just one season. Although published reports say Kiffin has two years at $2 million a year remaining on his contract, a team source with knowledge of the contract said there is only one year remaining at $1.7 million. The third year of the deal is at the team's option and is not guaranteed.

"Al never has signed a new coach to a (guaranteed) three-year deal," the source said. "Even Jon Gruden had a two-year contract at first; then he got a three-year deal the next time."

In the latest volley, Davis essentially has ostracized Kiffin from all meetings and planning sessions having to do with Raiders personnel, and has refused to allow Kiffin to decide the makeup of his coaching staff. Kiffin thought he had some of those responsibilities when he was hired, but they were not included in the contract.

The Raiders' source said, simply, "Al doesn't do that."

Although the bomb that set the most recent developments in motion was Kiffin's attempt to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Kiffin and Davis began clashing on staff makeup a year ago over a contract for Mark Jackson, Kiffin's top administrative aide.

Jackson got neither the money nor the length of agreement that Kiffin thought Davis had agreed to. By mid-season, Davis essentially had Jackson moved out of his office in the personnel department and rendered him a non-person.

On draft day, as has been reported, Kiffin stood up to Davis and convinced him to trade Randy Moss, who had done nothing in two years with Oakland. Kiffin also was lukewarm on top draft pick JaMarcus Russell, a quarterback Kiffin did not believe fit his offensive style.

When Russell didn't play until late in the season and then played poorly, Davis blamed Kiffin, although Davis had been warned before drafting Russell to expect a protracted contract negotiation that would inhibit Russell's progress. That's exactly what happened, and Russell missed all of training camp.

In season-ending meetings with his staff, Kiffin fired Ryan, whose defense slid from No. 3 in the NFL, based on yards allowed, in 2006, to No. 22 in 2007. Ryan went to Davis to thank him for the time he spent in Oakland and Davis blew up, telling Ryan that Kiffin had no authority to fire him. As a result, Ryan remains on the staff.

Kiffin also wanted to fire about five other assistant coaches whom he had hired. Davis refused to allow that to happen because he did not want to pay off the year all of them had remaining on their contracts.

Davis became further enraged during the playoffs when Norv Turner, the Oakland coach in 2004-05, took San Diego to the AFC Championship Game and Moss helped New England reach the Super Bowl.

Now, apparently Davis has reached out to former Vikings and Cardinals coach Dennis Green as a replacement whenever Kiffin either resigns or is fired. It's difficult to see how that pairing would work, either, because Green both is independent-minded and has a resume that means he wouldn't come cheap, always a requirement for a Davis coach.

Green presumably also would want to put his own staff together, something that was at the crux of the battle between Davis and Kiffin.

Oakland has not had a winning season since Bill Callahan succeeded Gruden for the 2002 season and led the team to the Super Bowl. Callahan was fired a year later after going 4-12. Over the last five seasons, the Raiders have had a record as good as 5-11 only once, and their overall record, 19-61, is by far the worst in the NFL.

Kiffin was the team's fourth coach since Gruden, following Callahan, Turner and Shell. The Raiders have had seven coaches since returning from Los Angeles to Oakland for the 1995 season, and only Gruden lasted longer than two years.

Lane Duck Kiffin

by Tim Kawakami

Straight out of today’s paper (I think–I haven’t double-checked so maybe I was whacked out of there, too; I know it wasn’t on the website that I could see)… Plus one quick add-on:

Hey, Lane Kiffin wants to remain the Raiders coach. He says. Well, those are the words he says. Terrific!

Things have been said, columns have been written, the Raiders have erupted and we all know what the end result will be: Kiffin will cease to be the Raiders coach at some point in the next few weeks or months.

I mean, even Al Davis can’t keep a coach out of spite, can he?

I’ll go over these quick three things, which I’m doing I must admit because I’ve typed often for a long time now:

* Kiffin went 4-12. No Raider coach under Davis has ever been retained after winning fewer than 5 games. There’s a reason for this–any coach who can’t win games is letting the Big Man Down.

* At least one of our Bay Area franchises has switched coaches every year since the end of the 2001 season, and Kiffin would make it six straight years. (And three-for-the-last-three for AD.)

End of 2001: Jon Gruden traded by Raiders.
End of 2002: Steve Mariucci fired by 49ers.
End of 2003: Bill Callahan fired by Raiders.
End of 2004: Dennis Erickson fired by 49ers.
End of 2005: Norv Turner fired by Raiders.
End of 2006: Art Shell fired by Raiders.
End of 2007: Kiffin?

* Other than understanding that Kiffin did a decent job in 2007, I do have one thing to ask him, rhetorically:

-Lane, what did you expect? The only reason you got the Raiders job is because nobody else any good wanted it… So why were you going to be any different?

Chaos got Kiffin this job. Chaos will drive him out.

Now he’s a Lane Duck for the remainder of his Raiders career, whether its two days, two weeks or…

Raiders deny resignation report

by Steve Corkran

ESPN reported Friday that Raiders managing general partner Al Davis has asked Coach Lane Kiffin to resign after only one season because of philosophical differences.

The report added that Davis is looking at Dennis Green, former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals coach, as a potential replacement.

The Raiders denied the report, with senior executive John Herrera calling it "a non-issue" and adding that Green "has already debunked the report."

Green told ESPN: "I haven't really talked to Al about any coaching job, but, really, how many times has my name been mentioned every time something goes on with the Raiders?"

Kiffin, who is in Mobile, Ala., to coach in today's Senior Bowl, told reporters that he didn't want to talk about recent developments.

"I'm not going to comment on anything that has transpired in the past three weeks," he said.

The relationship between owner and coach began to deteriorate earlier this month with Kiffin's insistence that defensive coordinator Rob Ryan be fired. Davis balked at such a move, according to people in the Raiders' front office.

Earlier this week, Ryan and Kiffin downplayed any rift and said their relationship is fine.

Once Davis blocked Kiffin's proposed firing of Ryan, Kiffin reportedly told Davis to fire him if he wasn't going to have autonomy over which coaches to hire and fire.

Davis responded by asking Kiffin to resign, according to the ESPN report, and even gave

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Kiffin a resignation letter to sign.

Kiffin reportedly refused. He is due approximately $4 million over the next two years.

Kiffin was allowed the freedom to hire new offensive coaches upon his arrival. Ryan and most of the defensive staff were under contract and retained.

Several reports said Davis stripped Kiffin of any authority over personnel and coaching moves, prohibited him from participating in meetings concerning free agency and the NFL draft and ordered him to clear any organizational decisions with Davis.

"It's all absolutely ridiculous, beyond belief," Herrera said. "Those stories are fraudulent. Everything is inaccurate. It's unconscionable. (The writers) should be held accountable. We're (angry) around here."

Kiffin, 32, was hired to replace the fired Art Shell a little more than a year ago. The Raiders improved to 4-12 under Kiffin and showed signs of emerging from a five-year funk that has resulted in a league-worst 19-61 record.

• The Raiders are slated to interview former receiver James Lofton on Monday. He was fired by the San Diego Chargers earlier this week after six years as their wide-receivers coach.

Lofton has interviewed with Davis twice for the team's coaching vacancy. Davis settled upon Shell and Kiffin, respectively. It is unclear what position Lofton is interviewing for this time.

One Raiders leader should go, but it's not the coach

by Carl Steward

If the latest flabbergasting fallout from the Raiders has even a grain of truth, a letter of resignation definitely should be drafted by the team on behalf of the franchise's long-suffering fans.

But it should be for Al Davis to sign - not Lane Kiffin - for the inexplicable, unconscionable mutilation of his own once-proud franchise. No stranger to strangeness, particularly in recent years, Davis may have thrown down the final gauntlet of incompetence that unmasks him as a pathetic patriarch clinging to the legend in his own mind.

Because Kiffin dares to have a vision of a respectable, unified football operation that strays from Omnipotent Al's warped world of secrecy, general stupidity and power-paranoid vanity, Davis apparently has mulled over the notion that "Lance" - the name he so feebly called Kiffin at his introductory press conference - may have to go.

In separate news accounts from ESPN's Chris Mortensen and the NFL Network's Adam Schefter - both citing sources close to Kiffin - Davis reportedly drafted a letter of resignation for his young coach to sign three weeks ago after the two clashed over the makeup of the coaching staff, specifically defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. Davis also was reportedly miffed regarding rumors that Kiffin may have been interested in the vacant Arkansas job.

According to the report, Kiffin refused to sign the resignation letter, because of compensation considerations to the three-year contract he signed

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last year, which has two years to run at approximately $2million per year. Good for Lane if it's true. If more insiders stood up to Davis, maybe the Raiders wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

The Raiders, of course, are denying the reports, insisting that Kiffin is still the coach and that any rifts between him and Davis are minor. They dismiss a Mortensen assertion that Dennis Green is a candidate for Kiffin's job and assert that an interview scheduled with one-time head-coaching candidate James Lofton is merely for an assistant's position.

Sigh. Same old Raiders. Any sane person should be beyond trying to figure out how this will all shake out, but whether Kiffin stays or goes, this latest episode is another damning joke of the Raiders' own making. The mere fact that the smoke of organizational discontent has become a raging brush fire of leaks and speculation in the media speaks loudly to the wholly dysfunctional level the Raiders franchise has sunk.

In short, Davis has made a mess of things . . . again. Because he is irked that the 32-year-old Kiffin has acted immaturely on a variety of fronts - geez, how dare this punk want more control of his coaching staff after a 4-12 season - the owner is exercising a series of power plays to put his independent-minded coach in his place.

Kiffin clearly wanted Ryan out, so clearly that a story stating that Ryan was going to be fired and would be taking a similar position with the New York Jets stemmed from Ryan himself. Ryan confided in people that was going to be the case . . . and well, word got out. Probably a good bet Ryan wanted out, too.

But Davis reacted angrily to the Ryan stories and decided - totally disregarding performance or internal harmony - that he was in control and it wasn't going to happen. Kiffin went into a three-week silence as a result, which only added fuel to the farce.

Such shadowy in-fighting points out the inanity of how the Raiders operate under Davis. Volatile situations fester and leak into the public domain, and by the time the owner acts, he serves to make a bad situation worse. Without any doubt, the fractured state of the coaching staff - despite public hug-and-kiss statements from Kiffin and Ryan at the Senior Bowl, where the Raiders staff is presiding over one of the teams - makes it difficult to believe the progress the team made during the 2007 season can continue moving forward seamlessly.

It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad. Or if you're a Raiders fan, maddening. If Davis only comprehended just how stridently offended most Raiders fans have become by his five-year run of ineptitude - longer if you remove the years Jon Gruden temporarily resurrected the organization's credibility - he might be shocked into hands-off submission.

More and more fans by the week, many of them longtime supporters of the team, write Davis-derisive letters of discontent to this newspaper's columnists, beat writers and blogs. Many assert Davis has totally lost it, that he has trashed his own wondrous Hall of Fame legacy with a series of questionable actions that have piled up to an embarrassing level in recent years. Tough to argue against the evidence. Now we add this debacle.

Davis surely will shift blame to the "media mongers" he believes are out to get him, just as he so lamely blamed the Randy Moss trade on his coaches a few months back. Hey, Al's never to blame. The six coaches he has hired since 1995? Their fault, not his, that they couldn't measure up to The Greatness.

Look, a 4-year-old wouldn't be so gullible at this point.

There will always remain a core of Al loyalists/lackeys. But their numbers are dwindling, and if Kiffin winds up leaving over a silly dispute over control, the owner's credibility will shrivel to next to nothing, even among Raiders die-hards. It's already pretty close as it is. If anything, it's the die-hards who have become the most anti-Davis, because there is a consistent thread to every bad development that has happened with this franchise in recent years.

He sits in the owner's chair, and if he really is drafting resignation letters, perhaps it really is time for him to sign one of his own.

Kiffin - Senior Bowl

He admitted he has "a lot of homework," and study hall begins this weekend.

Raiders coach Lane Kiffin and his staff will head to Mobile, Ala., for the Jan. 26 Senior Bowl. Kiffin will coach a North team that will feature seven USC players that he knows well from his time with the Trojans.

Kiffin's Senior Bowl experience will give him a head start on the scouting process, he hopes, after not being able to follow the college game during the season.

"What is neat is that a number of these names that will come out, I will have had background with them and know their families through recruiting," Kiffin said at the end of the Raiders' season in December. "Know who they are and the type of competitors they are, stuff that you have to research and find, so that helps a little bit."

Kiffin, who was USC's offensive coordinator before the Raiders hired him, obviously knows Trojans players best. But whomever he watches, it's with an eye toward filling some big holes.

Defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis would help the Raiders fill the void left by Warren Sapp's retirement.

Of the USC contingent, Ellis is the only projected top-10 pick. Pending a coin flip with Atlanta, the Raiders will select third or fourth in the first round of the NFL draft.

Offensive tackle Sam Baker is an All-American with experience in the Raiders' blocking scheme.

With left tackle Barry Sims going into his 10th season, a trade down for Baker in the draft could make sense in the first round.

Defensive end Lawrence Jackson would add depth and the potential of being another pass rusher.

Quarterback John David Booty, tight end Fred Davis, offensive lineman Drew Radovich, linebacker Keith Rivers and running back Chauncey Washington are the other USC players selected to play in the game.

Kiffin will have at his disposal other players with whom he is familiar because of his Pacific-10 Conference ties.

Cal will send wide receiver Lavelle Hawkins, running back Justin Forsett and safety Thomas DeCoud to the game. If Kiffin likes Hawkins, he can always ask quarterback JaMarcus Russell about him.

Hawkins went to LSU as a freshman before transferring and finishing his college career at Cal.

No more rumors, please

There hasn't been much made of the Raiders' defensive coordinator situation the last two weeks.

And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended any far-fetched dreams of a Kiffin family reunion in Oakland.

The team signed Lane's father, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, to an extension Friday.

Monte Kiffin, whose defenses have ranked in the top 10 in 10 of the last 11 seasons, had been rumored to replace Rob Ryan with the Raiders.

Ryan, however, was not fired by the Raiders and will coach at the Senior Bowl.

Resurfacing

The Raiders re-signed running back Adimchinobe Echemandu. He was a standout in training camp last summer after joining the Raiders in 2006 as a practice-squad player.

He was cut by the Raiders to make room for running back Dominic Rhodes after he served a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

Echemandu signed with Houston after the Raiders let him go but was cut before the season finale.