Reggie McKenzie is Building the Oakland Raiders

Dec 22, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders coach Dennis Allen reacts during the game against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Dennis Allen

When it comes to head coach Dennis Allen, I have heard and seen it all from those in Raider Nation that don’t like him. I was critical myself at first because I wanted Jackson to stay but that wasn’t really McKenzie’s call. I will say he’s unproven and didn’t do anything special as a defensive coordinator to lead to this but this was all McKenzie could do.

So after Jackson was fired, McKenzie scrambled to find a coach because he would have had someone sooner if that was McKenzie’s plan. Most G.M.s bring in someone they know but he didn’t know Dennis Allen from Adam when he hired him. Jackson shouldn’t have called out the defense in the way that he did and Davis is a players’ owner like his father.

Then after that, Allen was the best candidate because there wasn’t a long list of coaches that wanted the job. One, a great coach isn’t going to want to mess up his career record on a team that can’t have a decent roster for a couple of years. Another reason is a big-name coach is going to either want to be the G.M. himself or bring in his own G.M. so forget about that.

This is the year we find out what Allen is all about anyway.