Silver and Black Report

Gerard Warren during his playing days with the Silver & Black.

Last weekend, several former Oakland Raiders were participants on wild-card weekend. How did some of those players/coaches perform on Saturday when the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers engaged in an epic 36-32 contest, and during the New England Patriots romp of the Denver Broncos.

Aaron Kromer – Saints OL coach

The Saints allowed three sacks and had constant pressure put on Drew Brees against a very tough and active 49ers defense. In spite of the 37-yards on only 14 carries, Brees tallied a remarkable 462-yards passing on 40-of-63. With no ground attack, making play action a poor decoy, Brees was still able to rally the Saints for a 32-29 lead on a 66-yard pass to Jimmy Graham late in the final quarter. Kromer’s offensive line was not stellar, and now all three of their five starting linemen can begin to make plans for their trip to the Pro Bowl.

Gerard Warren – Patriots DT

The former 3^rd pick overall in the 2001 draft was a Raider from 2007-2009. He had 10-sacks in Silver & Black. Warren had two tackles, one for a loss on Saturday.

Sterling Moore – Patriots CB

Oakland signed the un-drafted rookie on July of 2011 before being waived in September. Since, he’s been with the Patriots, posting his best game in week-17 when he compiled two interceptions, one that was returned for a touchdown. Moore was very good against the Broncos, tallying two passes defended.

John Fox – Broncos head coach

Fox ended his first year in Denver with a 45-10 drubbing in New England. The Broncos did win the AFC West, had an incredible second-half run after starting 2011 at 2-5, placing them in the cellar of the division.

Jim Harbaugh – 49ers head coach

Harbaugh spent two seasons (2002-03) as an offensive assistant with the Silver & Black. He was part of the staff that helped Rich Gannon earn league MVP honors in 2002. On Saturday, in his first campaign as head coach with San Francisco, he earned a thrilling playoff victory at home against the Saints. “You’ve got to live or die in these games and we live on, and we live on in spectacular fashion. I’m really proud of my guys. I know you had ‘The Catch’ and ‘The Drive,’ I don’t know what you call this one,” said Harbaugh after the contest, referring to Vernon Davis 14-yard catch with nine seconds remaining to cap a 36-32 victory.

John Morton – 49ers WR coach

From 1997-2004, Morton worked for the Raiders in the personnel department, quality control on offense and as a wide receiver coach. He also served briefly as a tight end coach. There, he met Harbaugh, which eventually led to his capacity as receiver’s coach with San Francisco.

Tom Rathman – 49ers RB coach

Served in the same capacity for the Raiders for two seasons, aiding Justin Fargas’ success in attaining his first 1,000+-yard season. Rathman also donned the Silver & Black, playing his final campaign in 1994 with Los Angeles. The 49ers ran for 143-yards on Saturday on 22-carries.

Last week’s look at ex-Raiders, click here.

NOTE

• Tom Brady’s six touchdown passes versus the Broncos tied him with Steve Young and Daryle Lamonica for most scoring tosses in a single post-season game.

Follow @cottovic

Greg Knapp

By Eric Strauss, S&B Report Staff Columnist

Although it remains to be seen whether interim head coach Tom Cable will be back with the Oakland Raiders next year, and in what capacity, there will definitely be changes in the Lane Kiffin-built coaching staff.

Multiple media reports indicate offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, as had been rumored for some time, will be joining new Seattle Seahawks head coach Jim Mora Jr.

Knapp, at one time a possible head coaching candidate in Oakland, finally was given play-calling abilities after Kiffin’s dismissal a quarter of the way through the season, only to see them taken away by the halfway mark of the year after a string of low-scoring performances.

Meanwhile, defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, one of the longest-tenured members of the coaching staff, is reported to be a target of new Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini, who worked with Ryan in New England. Ryan has been with the Raiders for five years, serving under four different head coaches, and like Knapp was once considered a head coaching possibility.

The San Francisco 49ers’ website says Raiders running backs coach Tom Rathman has agreed to join that Bay Area club, with whom he spent most of his playing career.

And special teams coach Brian Schneider, whose charges had a terrific season in 2008, is reportedly interviewing around the league.

Most sources agree wide receivers coach James Lofton is the only member of the staff, including Cable, with a contract for 2009, and the other assistants’ pacts are up next week. Several reports indicate the team is willing to let assistants get an early start on departures, and with no clear indication of who the head coach will be, it appears many are trying to find stability somewhere other than Oakland.

The exodus began, in fact, before the season even ended, with offensive line assistant James Cregg notoriously drawing Cable’s ire by resigning to join Kiffin’s University of Tennessee staff.

The Raiders have not formally interviewed anyone for the head coaching spot yet (the Rooney rule must be satisfied, among other formalities), although owner Al Davis reportedly has spoken at some length with both Cable and New York Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, a former San Diego Chargers head coach.

If there are mass departures from the staff, even if Cable wins the permanent job as head coach, it could hamper some of the progress made by quarterback JaMarcus Russell and the team as a whole in a pair of season-ending victories.

On the other hand, with the Raiders’ recent struggles, it can be debated whether retaining a coach such as the ultra-popular defensive coordinator Ryan is a key to consistency, or merely a key to the consistent inconsistency of the past six years.

Other assistants who finished the 2008 season on the Silver & Black sidelines include: Quarterbacks coach John DiFilippo (who in a “Six Degrees of Separation” moment is the son of Gene DiFilippo, the Boston College athletic director who just fired head coach Jeff Jagodzinski, whose name was mentioned in at least one rumor reported out of Oakland), tight ends coach Kelly Skipper, defensive line coaches Keith Millard and Don Johnson, linebackers coach Don Martindale (Ryan’s right-hand man, who could be a candidate to replace him, or join him in Cleveland), defensive backs coaches Darren Perry and Randy Hanson, quality control coaches Adam Henry, Sanjay Lal, George Martinez and John Fassel, and strength coach Brad Roll.

One assistant who isn’t likely going anywhere is squad development coach Willie Brown, a Raider lifer who also works with the defensive backs. But the 23-year veteran staffer’s role could change, depending on who comes in as head coach.

Oakland Raiders Head Coach Lane Kiffin

As we first reported on September 9th, after the Oakland Raiders 41-14 thrashing at the hands of the Denver Broncos, it appears that the Silver & Black is ready to part ways with second year head coach Lane Kiffin.

The Raiders are preparing for their road game this weekend – against the rival Kansas City Chiefs – and a 0-2 start, especially if they get embarrassed once again could seal Kiffin’s fate, two weeks prior to the bye week, a target date SBReport sources have stated would be the end of the road for the 33-year old coach.

It appears that Al Davis is ready to move on after months of speculation regarding his rocky relationship with Kiffin, especially after rumors circulated during the off-season in which many outlets reported that Oakland’s owner was pushing for the coach’s resignation.

Sources reported that Davis wanted control over personnel decisions; staffers hired and fired, undermining the autonomy Kiffin was first given upon his arrival.

Kiffin avoided commenting on any of those rumors when they made headlines during his stay at Mobile, Ala., where his staff was coaching at the Senior Bowl, stating, “I’m not going to comment on anything that has transpired in the past three weeks.”

Reports also surfaced about Rob Ryan’s future with the club during the off-season, as it appeared that the defensive coordinator was ready to bolt to the New York Jets, after a disappointing 2007 season with the Raiders defense. But Oakland ended any speculative bantering with a press release and ultimately, retaining Ryan’s services.

Kiffin’s club looked awful during the home opener. And considering that the blow-out was handed to them by Mike Shanahan’s team, and after an off-season in which Davis spent a lot of money to upgrade the roster, the outcome may have been damaging enough to begin the process of purging the head coach and ending any differences behind the scenes that may have developed since his arrival.

With Kiffin seemingly gone at this point, whether it happens early in the season or after the end of the year, candidates for the position could be Ryan (especially if it happens during the season), or wide receivers coach James Lofton, who has interviewed in the past with the Silver & Black prior to landing a job with them this off-season.

With a 19-62 record since their Super Bowl appearance after the 2002 season, the constant instability this organization has shown on the sidelines and in the front office has had a major impact on the product on the field.

Regardless of what happens behind closed doors and on the sidelines, the Raiders better hope that young players such as JaMarcus Russell and Darren McFadden pan out and become successful pros, or they could face some more lean years ahead of them. One things for sure…

The constant turnover and changing of coaches doesn’t help when a team is trying to get out of a historic rut.

STAFF MOVEMENT?

SBReport sources have also stated that assistants Greg Knapp, Tom Cable and Tom Rathman, along with two other coaches, may depart at season’s end, likely landing  in Seattle when Jim Mora Jr. takes over as head coach.

All indications are that Mike Holmgren will move on at the end of 2008, and Mora Jr., who had Knapp and Cable as part of his staff while coach in Atlanta, will look to reunite with those offensive assistants when he takes over as head coach of the Seahawks.