Here are a few quotes I found very interesting during Dennis Allen’s introductory press conference in Alameda. Oakland Raiders general manager, Reggie McKenzie and owner Mark Davis were in attendance.
Regarding Carson Palmer:
“Carson Palmer is extremely excited about what we have going here,” Dennis Allen said. “He’s looking forward to the future and he’s excited about the opportunities here.”
“[Carson is] excited, and we’re excited for him,” Reggie McKenzie stated.
ANALYSIS:
One of the more vital early decisions Allen had to make was settling in on his quarterback. Yes, this regime inherited Carson Palmer, but what they have is a passer that will make loads of money and that showed flashes of his Pro-Bowl type past right out of semi-retirement, no training camp and learning his teammates and playbook on the fly. Not to mention that he had no Darren McFadden when he took the snaps.
Palmer will be Oakland’s starting passer. Allen had to empower the quarterback now and let him know that moving forward, he’s the guy looked at to help this team take it to the next level.
Regarding penalties and his approach:
“The only way that you create habits is through consistency, doing the same things over and over and over,” Allen said. “Well, if you’re committing penalties, that becomes a habit. We’ve got to change those habits, all right? We’ve got to develop the proper habits so that we’re not creating those penalties on a daily basis.”
ANALYSIS:
This is all talk until proven otherwise. But you have to like what he’s saying. The last coach made promises of fixing the penalty issue and those attempts failed miserably.
Tallying penalties has become habitual, but so has an inability to stuff the run. Allen has many bad habits that he’ll have to break, but his militant style and disposition should be a welcomed approach. He wants things done right… the first time.
On defensive talent:
“I don’t think radical changes are what need to be made,” Allen said. “Obviously, just with all aspects of the game, you’re always going to try to upgrade your team in whatever way that you can but I do still feel like there’s a talented defense. I feel like we got enough players, both on offense and defense, that we can win a championship with.”
ANALYSIS:
Yes, a lot of that is just said because it sounds good and you want to emphasize your ultimate goal of being the best. A lot of is based on him not wanting to get on the wrong side of players early on, and I’m sure he’ll gain better perspective of the talent on the defense, or lack of thereof, as mini-camps, OTAs and the summer roll around.
There is talent on this unit. And there’s untapped potential too in quite a few young studs. But there’s also no denying that the secondary is in shambles, with or without Tyvon Branch, who is a UFA and the run defense has been one of the worst in the entire NFL since 2003.
On structure:
“This is a team effort,” McKenzie said. “When we go about getting players, work on getting a staff in here, how we’re going to do things on the football side, we’re going to do these things together. It’s not, ‘I got this, you have this.’ We’re not doing it like that. The right hand will know what the left hand is doing. We’re in this thing together.”
ANALYSIS:
The days of one man running the show are over. The G.M will help build the roster in accord with the coach, the coaches will teach and implement game plans, the players will play. There will be no outside interference from powers atop as to who plays, who is on the roster and what should be the plan of approach for the squad on a particular Sunday. In essence, the Raiders will operate like a modern football organization, finally.

On what he heard about Oakland, good or bad:
“At the end of the day, what I was really concerned with was, who are the people that are leading the organization now? The people who are leading the organization now are Mark Davis and Reggie McKenzie, and when I looked across the table at Reggie McKenzie, I knew that was a man that I believed in and that I trusted in,” Allen stated. “That was the only thing that was a concern to me, and that was what really drew me to this job.”
ANALYSIS:
Plain and simple, he wouldn’t be a candidate if Al Davis was around, and he surely wouldn’t gotten or taken the job if the old structure was still in place.
Allen wants to run his defense and call his own shots – that wouldn’t have occurred with Davis alive. Allen has complete autonomy to pick and choose what coaches he wants on or off the staff – another thing he would’ve had to deal with if Davis was alive.
This isn’t an archaic operation anymore. Allen has autonomy and will be left alone to do what he does best – coach.
On his style on defense:
“We’re going to be an aggressive, attacking style of defense,” Allen said.
“We will play with discipline. … We are going to preach fundamentals and discipline and the players are going to fall right in line.”
ANALYSIS:
Ok folks, lets get ready to hear the word ‘discipline’ another few hundred times in the coming months, because Allen made sure to state that he wanted a ‘disciplined’ club many times.
It’s back to basics for the Raiders, especially on defense. He’ll surely want to attack and he has players to make that happen…
But Oakland has to go back to square one with this new coach and prove that they can handle taking on more before he unleashes all he has to offer.
On his coaching style and play calling:
“I don’t believe the head football coach can do an effective job as the head football coach if he’s calling plays, offensively or defensively,” said Allen.
ANALYSIS:
Look, I’m not going to argue with Mike Holmgren’s success as a head coach and play caller. Or a guy like Bill Belichick, Sean Payton or Jon Gruden, who have shown in the past that they can handle it and win being play caller and coach.
But you have to like that Allen will delegate as a rookie and bring in his guys to make sure things get done the right way. Hue Jackson handled the offense and was the head man in his first year – a big mistake for him.
Allen has already impressed me by realizing that you have to have limitations – is not about knowing what you can do, it’s realizing what you can’t or shouldn’t do.
He’ll keep the pulse of the team and learn on the job. He’s a rookie head coach. Allen will go through his growing pains. But at least he won’t have so much of a burden by wanting to do it all.
On guys he can depend on for advice:
“I’ve got great resources that I can count on to give me advice anytime I need it,” Allen said. “I’ve got Sean Payton, who is one of the … really a brilliant, innovative offensive coach but also an outstanding head coach. He understands exactly how to run a program and how to work with players.
“I just spent a year with John Fox, who’s really done a great job throughout his career with Carolina and then in Denver. Dan Reeves brought me into this league and gave me my first opportunity to coach in the NFL. I’ve got some great resources that I can rely on and lean on in times when I hit a situation when I need some help.”
ANALYSIS:
You got to love that. Some great names he’ll lean on…
Allen will do it his way. It won’t be the “Raider way,” or how some people want you to do it. He’ll embrace the Raider past no doubt, but it’s time to take a different plan of action.
Outlook:
“This is a new day for Oakland Raiders football,” Allen said. “We’re going to set our own goals and aspirations.”
ANALYSIS:
No disrespect to what happened in the past… and yes, the Raiders are deep in tradition and great lore. But at times, they hung on to that too much and never let fresh air into the building. With a G.M who has his back and will let him do whatever is needed to get the football team right and proper structure in place, the Raiders have a whole different outlook with this staff.
On his defensive and offensive coordinators:
“We’re exploring all our avenues as far as what we’re going to do there,” Allen said. “We are in the process right now of formulating our whole staff.”
McKenzie said, “there’s a couple of guys he wants to keep. He’s going to see who he can get and who he can’t.”
ANALYSIS:
Al Saunders did not get a bode of confidence. It’s up in the air who will Allen bring in. Saunders was a logical choice to keep continuity and a semblance of order with unit that was solid. Allen did say he wants an offense that can run the ball and attack aggressively. He’ll patter his offense, or desire his offense to look like Sean Payton’s in New Orleans. Allen said he wants an up-tempo, fast and aggressive offense. He wants to run the football ball, and be explosive in passing game. They’ll need to keep Michael Bush to stay atop the league in running the ball and have one of the better running back tandems in the NFL. As for the explosive pass attack, it starts with keeping Palmer and hoping they keep Marcel Reece, develop the young targets and use Kevin Boss more effectively in 2012.
Coaching style:
“We’re going to do a lot of different things on defense,” Allen said. “Again, we’re going to be attacking and aggressive in a bunch of different areas. I don’t really get hung up on the 4-3, 3-4 personnel. We’re going to find out what our players can do the best.”

ANALYSIS:
He wants aggressiveness, but that will only happen until the fundamental are sound and they can do the basics; stop the run, tackle well and stop tallying dumb penalties.
One things for sure, McKenzie won’t pigeon hole himself into making draft picks and the new coach won’t set his defensive schemes in stone.
FINAL OUTLOOK:
I love the hiring and stated before he got hired than Dennis Allen would be my choice. It was the right move not bringing back Hue Jackson and no longer will Raider fans have to hear what I dubbed, “Hue Talk,” a year ago when he was hired. I have the same issues with Allen as I did with Jackson, before people starting waxing poetically about the former offensive coordinator.
I stated last January that Jackson will have growing pains and that it was vastly different being a head guy, rather than a coordinator. I also felt that he benefited from a monster season by McFadden and other surprises, especially the emergence of Jacoby Ford.
Allen does not have a Champ Bailey, a Brian Dawkins or a Von Miller on this defense. And he inherits a team that has been .500 the last two years.
But what he does have now, that his predecessors did not is a front office that is stabile, a quarterback with legitimate ability and full reigns to implement what’s needed to build this team into a winner. Those things along will make him way more successful than Jackson or any other coach that has been on the sidelines with the Silver & Black since Gruden. Book it.