5 Raiders to benefit considerably from new coaching staff

Hopefully all the 2018 Oakland Raiders benefit from the coaching staff changes. Here are five that could be most positively impacted by them right away.

After slogging through a miserable 6-10 season in 2017, the Oakland Raiders will have a completely new coaching staff in place for 2018. Headlined by the return of popular former head coach Jon Gruden, the Silver and Black will need to get back to work to right this sunken ship.

While Gruden spent nine years in the booth for ESPN calling games for Monday Night Football, he did successfully assemble a strong coaching staff upon his return to the NFL. All three of his coordinator hires have ample experience as NFL coordinators at several stops.

Paul Guenther had been with the Cincinnati Bengals forever. Greg Olson has been an offensive coordinator four times, most recently with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016. Rich Bisaccia worked with Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, having last worked with the Dallas Cowboys.

No, it isn’t just that trio with coordinator experience. Wide receivers coach Edgar Bennett was previously the offensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. Incoming offensive line coach Tom Cable used to lead the Silver and Black from 2008 to 2010. Obviously, Gruden is doing his part in assembling a super staff in his first year back in the NFL. While hopefully all the 2018 Raiders get better by the new coaching regime’s arrival, here are five players that could be impacted most positively by these hires.

This one is assuming that he’ll be back with the Raiders on a new contract. Defensive end Denico Autry has had moments of great promise in Raiders uniform. The former standout with the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the SEC briefly emerged as the Raiders’ third go-to pass rusher in 2017 behind Khalil Mack and Bruce Irvin.

However, an ankle and hand injuries limited his production in the final weeks of what was a long season for the Raiders. The Raiders will be returning most of their on-field talent in 2018, but Autry has to be on the short list of impending free agents that Oakland would earmark to have back. There is too much potential with Autry to let him walk away for nothing.

The reason he will likely pop under this new coaching regime is that Paul Guenther has been a solid defensive coordinator for the last few years taking over for Mike Zimmer in 2014. The Bengals defense had great players at all three levels, but particularly in the trenches and in the defensive backfield. Not to say that Oakland was bad along the defensive line, but it was one of those high floor, low ceiling sort of position groups.

Obviously, defensive end Mario Edwards and defensive tackle were sought-after prospects coming out of school, but it might be Autry who takes this position group to the next level. If that chemistry we saw out of Autry, Irvin and Mack was the real deal, look for Guenther to do everything in his power to get the most out of this potentially dynamic pass-rushing trio.