Gannon talks Raider football: Russell, ‘footwork is atrocious’, team will lose ’11 or more games.’
Former Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon commented yesterday about the current state of the Silver & Black and was critical of the organization, the current play of their quarterback and addressed the situation with John Herrera, when the executive stated, “Rich Gannon is not welcome here,” in regards to his presence at the team’s facility prior to a contest.
Gannon, a CBS game analyst was interviewed on Fox Sports Radio and stated:
The amazing thing is, as most people know, as most people know who are close to the situation, even the fans will tell you; I spent six years there, I poured my heart and soul into the thing, and it pains me more than anybody really, to see what’s happened since I left there. To say that I’m taking shots at the team or being overly critical, my job as a CBS analyst with Sirius radio is to call the action and to describe what is happening and to be fair and to be balanced in my analysis. And I think I have done that and I’ve even, people don’t even realize, I’ve called each coach that has gone in there; I’ve talked to Art Shell, I’ve talked to Lane Kiffin, I’ve talked to Tom Cable, I’ve called Mr. [Al] Davis, I’ve said look, if there is anything I can do to work with the quarterback, to come out and help in the off-season, I’ll be happy to do it. Nobody wants to see the Raiders do better, do well more than I do. But at the same time, part of my job, part of my responsibilities is to say, hey look, the product on the field right now is not good and why is not good.
Gannon’s comments come after Herrera stated last week, “He’s attacked us on a regular basis since becoming a member of the media.
“After affording him the opportunity to establish a career here, he has since gone on to attack us in a way that’s totally unacceptable.”
When asked about whether or not the Raiders have ever offered him a job, Gannon stated, “No, not really, I’ve talked to Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis asked me if I had an interest in getting involved in coaching. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to do that in the National Football League. I’ve been offered a number of jobs, and to be quite honest, as much as I would like to do it, I just think the time, commitment is strenuous on the family. Obviously, I have a wife and two daughters, and so, I cant make that sacrifice, my family is very important to me and it really is a vocation, people don’t understand how many hours and how much time each coach puts into doing this.”
Gannon covered the game in Oakland versus the Denver Broncos a few weeks ago. And after observing the thrashing and seeing how they are headed for what it appears to be another losing season, he talked about what is going on by the Bay area:
“Yeah I do. Obviously, I’m not there everyday, but I get a sense that this is a team that for the last 6 years have lost 11 or more games – no other team in the history of the National Football League has done that.
Obviously there are some problems. You got a quarterback right now that is really struggling to find his way. A very inexperienced wide receiver corps, an offensive line that is average at best. And now you have some issues with the running back in terms of their health. Defensively, I thought, certainly the additions of Richard Seymour and Greg Ellis would be significant. But this is a team that in my opinion is in trouble. The coaching staff, there is some talk about what’s going to happen to Tom Cable, now in the next couple of weeks; I’m sure the league is taking a real close look at that. And whether or not disciplined levied at him.”
He continued, “I just think that this is another situation, another season you are going to see the Raiders lose 11 or more games.”
During that game against the Broncos, the boo birds sang and many fans expressed their displeasure Oakland’s big armed, but inaccurate passer. Gannon talked about whether there should be a change made at that position, stating, “I’ll say this; I wish that when I was playing that they would have been as lenient with me as they were with this guy. Honestly, heck, if I ever completed 30 or 40 percent of my passes in a game, they would try to run me out of town, I went to four straight pro-bowls. So I guess things have changed out there. Obviously, they gotta make a change, they wont, because the owner is very involved in that decision as you know. And they feel like this guy is the future of this organization. Right now, he’s not playing well, I think, certainly, his weight has been an issue in this whole thing, his footwork is atrocious and you know, he has a ways to go.”
He elaborated, “When you look at what their options are, do they put Bruce Gradkowski in there, they have another guy in Charlie Frye, so, I don’t think there isn’t any real threat in terms of who is going to replace him. But I think right now, to sit him down would be a good idea so he can really re-evaluate things and sometimes taking a seat and having to watch can really help you get re-focused and reenergized.”
As for the state of the club, the vocal analyst reported, “It’s very probable they’ll be 1-7 at their bye week. And at that point, what do you do? This is an organization that has gone through a number of different quarterbacks, a number of different coaches, a number of different play callers, so at the end of the day, the buck has to stop somewhere. I think they need to take a close look at the organization in terms of the direction they are headed, at every level, in terms of general manager, in terms of the coaches, in terms of the players, and really bring in somebody and some players that really want to do it the right way.”
He also talked about the talent on the roster and how he can’t see why their young players are not getting the job done: “They have some talent, you look at some of their players, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, they have probably the best cornerback in football in Nnamdi Asomugha and you add a Greg Ellis, you added a Richard Seymour, Chris Johnson the other corner is a good player, you have some decent safeties, some young linebackers, you drafted Darrius Heyward-Bey in the first round, you have a bunch of first round picks on the offensive side of the ball; Darren McFadden, JaMarcus Russell, so why isn’t it getting done, I don’t know.”
Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist
