Oakland Raiders

New Raiders assistant is living the dream
Miramonte High grad Sanjay Lal is in charge of the wide receivers
By Steve Corkran
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 08/24/2009 06:34:22 PM PDT
Updated: 08/25/2009 06:56:09 AM PDT

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Rookie Darrius Heyward-Bey, pictured, could help new Raiders receivers coach Sanjay Lal get more...

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NAPA — Sanjay Lal says working for the Raiders is his dream job. He maintains that view even though some might regard his situation — replacing Pro Football Hall of Famer James Lofton and inheriting the NFL's least-productive receiving corps — a nightmare.

Far from it, Lal said.

"You have your dreams," Lal said during the early days of his first training camp coaching the Raiders wide receivers, "and this comes true and you look back and say, 'How did I get here?'

"If I could've written it, I wouldn't have been able to write it or believe it. But it happened, and I'm not going to let go."

Lal's dream sprouted soon after his collegiate career as a wide receiver at Washington ended. By 1996, he had returned to Miramonte High and worked under his former coach, Floyd Burnsed. He also coached at Los Medanos College, Saint Mary's College and Cal before joining the Raiders in 2007 as an offensive quality control assistant.

"One of the major things I liked about Sanjay was his strive for perfection," said Burnsed, now the football coach at Solano College. "Everything we did, he wanted it to be perfect. That's the mark of a good coach."

It won't take anything near perfection, at least this season, for Lal to be considered a success in his current role.

Raiders wide receivers ranked last in the league in production last season. Johnnie Lee Higgins led the unit with 22 receptions for 366 yards and four
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touchdowns.

Numerous things conspired against Lofton and the Raiders. Projected starters Drew Carter and Javon Walker suffered injuries in training camp. Carter missed the entire season, Walker played in only eight games.

It also didn't help that quarterback JaMarcus Russell struggled with his accuracy or that the pass protection was anything but airtight.

The lack of production cost Lofton his job. Lal was the beneficiary and now is in charge of transforming a liability into an asset.

It will be a challenge. Walker and Samie Parker are the only wide receivers on the roster with more than two years' NFL experience, and Parker isn't expected to make the team at this point.

Lal isn't deterred one bit by the apparent drawback.

"I've always had a vision of how I would want the receiver corps to be," Lal said, "and with a clean slate, you can implement everything from (scratch)."

Walker is in his eighth NFL season. He has seen his share of receivers coaches.

"I was telling Sanjay, 'Man, you've got the best technically sound group I've ever been around,'"‰" Walker said.

Lal aspired to be an NFL receiver. Once that dream faded, he turned to coaching.

At first, Lal wasn't sold he made the right decision. That changed when he pulled aside Miramonte receiver Phil Wagner one day and passed on some of the vast knowledge he gleaned in his years of playing.

"I taught him a move, and he used the move and scored," Lal said. "He came back and hugged me on the sideline and said, 'Coach, I wouldn't have scored if it wasn't for you.' And right then, I was hooked."