FanHouse TomCable

Some NFL teams have confidence. Some have big dreams. Some have hope that they'll be this year's surprise. And some teams are just looking for any sign at all that they might not be a complete embarrassment to their sport. The Oakland Raiders fall into the last category, and JaMarcus Russell is offering such a sign.

According to Steve Corkran of the Oakland Tribune, Russell is organizing a special minicamp for the Raiders' quarterbacks, receivers and tight ends at an undisclosed location sometime before training camp begins on July 30. The fact that Russell, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft, is taking this upon himself is seen as a sign that he is trying to show the kind of leadership expected of an NFL quarterback. This in turn is seen as good for the Raiders and good for Russell, who will enter training camp with veteran backup Jeff Garcia breathing down his substantial neck.

From Corkran's story:

It's May, NFL practices are voluntary, and they mainly consist of 80 or so players running around in shorts and t-shirts trying not to get hurt. Despite barely resembling football, organized team activities (OTAs) are an opportunity for coaches to install new schemes, and new faces to get acclimated to their surroundings.

It's also a chance for veterans to become more comfortable. This assumes the scheme doesn't change every offseason. Which brings us to JaMarcus Russell, the first overall pick in 2007, and currently penciled in as the Raiders starting quarterback.

Darrius Heyward-Bey was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the first round of the NFL draft for one reason: speed. The former Maryland wideout has tons of it, and while that may not be enough to justify his selection to anyone with a brain most people, it was enough for Al Davis.

Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Heyward-Bey's speed comes with a troublesome side effect: injury. That's right, DHB messed up his hamstring and sat out the final day of minicamp because he was "running too fast."

Oakland Raiders wide receiver Javon Walker had knee surgery last month. No surprise there; hundreds of NFL players have surgery each offseason. But here's the odd twist: Walker didn't inform the Raiders that he was having the procedure.

It's not completely clear what is wrong with Walker's right knee -- the same knee he injured in 2007 -- but it's serious enough that he isn't able to participate in this weekend's minicamp and won't be ready to go until training camp starts in July. And whatever is wrong with the knee, it's particularly odd that Walker apparently didn't bother to tell the Raiders until a few weeks after the operation.

Coming off their sixth consecutive non-playoff season, the Oakland Raiders entered the 2009 NFL draft with a number of holes. With the seventh overall pick, they couldn't have made a bad selection in terms of position. Offensive tackle, wide receiver, defense ... all would have been wise choices.

As it turns out, the Raiders went with a potential playmaking receiver for third year quarterback JaMarcus Russell. In theory, it's a solid move. Too bad they took the wrong receiver.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

The 2008 season might go down as one of the most bizarre campaigns in the history of the Oakland Raiders. Lane Kiffin and Al Davis clearly didn't get along, while Kiffin pulled off the impossible task of making Davis look like a sane, rational person.

A team spokesperson nearly decked a beat writer; the punter was, reportedly, punched out by a defensive lineman; and the team on the field finished with a losing season, failing to win more than five games for the sixth consecutive year. Just a disastrous season in every way imaginable.

The Raiders have finally decided on a head coach, and it's the same guy who took over for Lane Kiffin midway through the 2008 season: Tom Cable. Not much of a mystery, really, other than Cable proclaiming that Oakland will give fans "a team you can be proud of every Sunday."

As MDS pointed out, it's hard to figure the Raiders becoming a great football team anytime soon, primarily because they've managed just 24 wins in the previous six seasons. The man responsible for the franchise's current predicament, owner Al Davis, is less optimistic than Cable about the promise 2009 might hold. From today's presser:

Four months after Tom Cable became the Oakland Raiders' interim head coach, the team finally removed the "interim" from his title today, officially declaring that Cable is the Raiders' coach for the 2009 season.

And on his first official day as head coach, both Cable and the team were quick to promise big changes for a franchise that has lost at least 11 games in each of the last six seasons.

Adam Schefter of NFL.com and Michael David Smith of ESPN are reporting that the Oakland Raiders have decided to name Tom Cable as their newest head coach. Cable became the team's interim head coach in late September after Lane Kiffin was fired by Al Davis, capping off a public feud that was never short on bizarre moments.

The Raiders, as they usually do, are denying that the decision has been made:

"The decision has not been made," Herrera said. "That's not correct. At some point here we will have a head coach, but as of now that decision has not been made. We are assembling a staff as you know, but a decision on the head man has not been made."

No one ever really knows what's going on in the mind of Al Davis, the eccentric Oakland Raiders owner who has run the team for more than four decades.

But to the extent that we can ever tell what's happening with the Silver and Black, it appears that Tom Cable, who spent most of 2008 as the Raiders' interim head coach, is the favorite to have the "interim" label removed and become the head coach on a permanent basis (or at least, as permanent as anything ever gets with the Raiders) for the upcoming season.