Hue Jackson had his final Monday press conference after their tough home defeat at the hands of the San Diego Chargers. Instead of preparing for a playoff contest, the Oakland Raiders were cleaning out their lockers and wrapping up their 2011 campaign at the headquarters.
Here are some tidbits from Jackson’s talk with the media:
On his message to the team on their way out:
“That as a Raider, you’re expected to win. And 8-8 is not where we want to be and I don’t want to use the old coaches’ cliché — you look at the wins you possibly could have won, and you didn’t. To me, that’s just…you’re setting yourself up again to be able to say, hey look, if we did this, we’d be here, you did that, you’d be there. You didn’t. At the end of the day, you didn’t win those games. We got what we earned. We’re 8-8, we’re a .500 football team for the second year in a row and, that’s disappointing. But the guys that come back here, that get ready for the off-season program, they’re going to buy in…all the way to what it is that we’re selling. Because we’re going to win a championship here, and that’s what I told them. And if you don’t feel comfortable at the way I think you’ve got to buy in, then maybe this is not the right place for you.”
ANALYSIS: Good to hear Jackson admit that this was a disappointment, because he was the first one to talk up his club early in the season, saying they would become bullies and that they had untapped potential. Eight wins again equates to a disappointing season, especially when they were at 7-4 in late November.
Looking back at missed chances:
“I mean, I can go all the way back to Buffalo, I can go back to Denver here, I can go back to the Detroit game. I can go back to the game yesterday. And where we had opportunities and we didn’t make the most of them.”
ANALYSIS: Those three particular games, I talked about being integral losses that could have shifted the outcome within the division. Coincidentally, all three were games that either defense never made a stand late or collapsed entirely.
On Chuck Bresnahan’s defense:
“It’s unacceptable.”
ANALYSIS: You now he wasn’t going to say much. If Al Davis were around, he would’ve never blasted his players publicly, or he would’ve heard from the man in-charge. Like Davis though, I don’t think the Raiders will ever feel obligated to make moves just because of public backlash, or because of what the perceived timing of it should be. In Oakland, things have always been done at their own pace. This is black Monday around the league, if things were a tad different and that defense was really “unacceptable,” the front office should’ve made a move. So now we wait… for an announcement, or no announcement because Bresnahan is under contract.
He added about staff changes: “Well, I haven’t sat through it all, but obviously I’m going to meet with everybody here soon and we’re going to go from there.”
On possible general manager hiring:
“But I would hope that as the head coach of this football team I would hope that the organization understands that I have a pretty good idea of where we need to go. Because if not, then I shouldn’t be where I’m sitting. So at the end of the day, I think I have a pretty good idea now that I’ve been through this for a year, and have done it, be it coaching, be it all kind of sort of different hats and duties, dealing with you all, and everybody, I think I know exactly what this team needs to do and how they need to do it. That’s the fun part of it.”
ANALYSIS: Jackson is already posturing and positioning himself for whoever comes in. I’m sure he would like help and a staffer to deal with the contracts and other vital behind the scene things needed to be in personnel, but he wants some sort of power and depending on whom Oakland selects, it could shift the balance of powers. I’m sure he wants to be involved in the process to ensure he can have a working relationship with the general manager, and maybe even have some influence on them.
Jackson added: “I don’t know that. But I don’t think it’d be awkward. I’m pretty comfortable with who I am and what I am. I’m not gonna get caught up in who we hire and who we bring in here. I know how that works. I know when people mention that, ‘well, if they hire a GM then he’s gonna want to bring in his own head coach.’ And hey, if that’s what Mark decided to do, that’s his right. I don’t think that that’s the case, but that is his right. But at the end of the day, whoever comes here, I think it’s gonna be somebody who wants to share the same vision as a I do, which is winning a championship, which is getting the organization back to being better than average. Because we should be, and we can be.”
On Carson Palmer and Jason Campbell’s future:
“I think, obviously, he has some strong characteristics throwing the ball. I mean, he’s proven that. I think he’s disproved all the issues with his arm. I don’t think anybody can bring those subjects up anymore. I think that Carson needs a strong off-season, with his teammates, with the players, training camp and then let’s see what he can be then. Am I tied to him? Well, I made the decision, so I guess I am. You know? He’s one of our quarterbacks. But by no means do I say, hey, Jason Campbell doesn’t haven’t an opportunity to be here, too. That decision has not been made. I have a strong feeling about Jason Campbell, and I think you guys all know that. I mean, my doing that, I know everybody sees it as maybe it was a slap to Jason. It wasn’t. I owe this team the best opportunity to win, and this organization the best opportunity to win. That’s why I did what I did. And at the end of the day, I’m not gonna run from that.”
ANALYSIS: Jackson’s tenure will be defined by how the Palmer trade works out – they are tied at the hip. There’s no denying that. As for Campbell, it would be ideal to keep him, as he’ll be the perfect back-up; he has strong work ethic, knows the system and has cohesion with the unit. Problem is, does he still think he can be a starter elsewhere, and would he accepted a demotion and lesser money than what he think he could make. There aren’t many starting openings in the NFL, so anywhere he goes, he’ll surely be a backup who may have a shot with a passer on a short leash. But otherwise, with Kyle Orton out there, Vince Young and now Matt Flynn, who could be a hot name; Campbell may not be a commodity in the open market.
On Darren McFadden’s injury and the effect:
“You have always put everything into the evaluation. Darren is under contract and all those things will take care of themselves. But it has taught me that you always have to have – whether it be at the quarterback position, the running back position of the receiver position — a very capable No. 2. And obviously Michael Bush was.”
ANALYSIS: Easily shows that the Raiders don’t plan on letting Bush walk away – nor they shouldn’t.
On Tyvon Branch’s possible free-agency:
“Very, because I think he’s one of the young, talented players on our team. I think he has a bright future ahead of himself. Any guy that’s back there that we deem, the organization deems, is a Raider and that plays the way we want them to play, we want to get under contract and get back here in a uniform. He’s definitely one of those guys.”
