How Tony Sparano Can Coach Oakland Raiders Beyond 2014

September 29, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders assistant head coach/offensive line coach Tony Sparano (right) acknowledges guard Mike Brisiel (65) against the Washington Redskins before the game at O.co Coliseum. The Redskins defeated the Raiders 24-14. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

What He Has now

Sparano is a hard-nosed coach that demands the same of his players and has the philosophy to match his tough persona. When he coached the Dolphins, they ran the ball 45.6 percent of the time as Raiders are at 31.6 percent so far this year. Former head coach Dennis Allen believes in short passing as a long hand off and zone blocking no matter the what your personnel is.

You can tell from Sparano’s run percentage that he loves a physical brand of football to grind it out on the ground. And if you commit your strong safety to stopping the run, he’s willing to go over the top with the deep ball off play action. What’s more than that is Sparano plays to the strength of his team instead of making players do things they’re not good at.

Sparano said at his introductory press conference, “We need to make sure that we’re asking our players here as coaches to do the things that they do best. We have some good football players here and a lot of them. They do a lot of good things. We need to let them do what they do best.”