Art Shell. Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

[CrossBones]

UGH...didn't need this Whisenhunt/Petrino news today. It sucks.

OK...moving on. It would appear Art Shell is emerging as the most probably Raiders head coach. I love Art Shell. I thought he got a raw deal the first time and even Al Davis agrees.

My concern is that Art has been out of coaching I think for the past 3 years (maybe it's only two). Can he take control and bring back the magic? Does he have enough experience to pickup the new schemes and other things going on in the NFL? Can he restore order and get the players focused on the taerget?

So the question is: Can Art Shell lead thed Radiers to a world championship?

[JC]

I don't think he has the capacity to lead the Raiders back to a Super Bowl...he was never great at developing talent, and I dunno if he's creative enough on offense to succeed in the NFL right now.

[Rupert]

The issue with Art Shell isn't his X's and O's. He's a solid foundation that players respect. He might not be able to whup 'em anymore, but who is going to give him shit? No-one.

I think part of the problem Art had his last time around was his OC. Does anyone think Terry Robiskie was an innovator? The word is that John Shoop will be our OC. Is he an innovator? I don't know. What I do know for sure is that only Jimmy Raye struck me as worse than Robiskie as far as Raider OC's have gone, but Robiskie was worse when it comes to innovating (much worse).

Additionally, Al Davis has had 3 WCO HC's since Art left, the last two of which proved pretty damned good at getting the offense going and using the tools on the field. So I would expect that type of influence will remain in some of the formations, route combinations, and QB reads we will see since Al Davis had a large influence in what happened during Art's tennure.

[Rupert]

I don't think he has the capacity to lead the Raiders back to a Super Bowl...he was never great at developing talent, and I dunno if he's creative enough on offense to succeed in the NFL right now.
A quick question. Who has been great at developing talent here? Not Gruden. Not White. Not Shineyhand. Not Turner. Not Bunghole. Not Callahan.

The only way to determine how well someone develops talent is to see them around for some time. Two years? The guy disappears, the scheme is changed, new guy brings in his people, and then he disappears.

You also have to consider what he's given to work with. The perfect example is Gibson. He has all the athletecism in the world, but he doesn't know how to drop his ass to make a tackle. That should have been a red flag when evaluating him. The guy can make all the killer tackles he wants in college, but you have to consider the level of talent he's facing. Then you have to project his style on the field to the NFL level. If he's gotten away with his poor technique his entire career, there's little hope of ever changing it. If he can continue the success at the NFL level, you got lucky; if not, you got what you deserved. In Gibson, we got what we deserved, a decently aggressive player with good man skills and poor technique that is inconsistent as a tackler. You can't make that kind of player your last line of defense (even though the SS rarely is the last line of defense).

[CrossBones]

I'm not at all sure that "developing talent" is the major quality of the head coach. Having a strong, technically solid, coaching staff is where developing talent comes in. Sure there are exceptions but I don't believe developing talent should be the number one quality you look for in an NFL coach.

What if we had Rich Gannon as our QB coach? What if we had a guy like Shell coaching the OL? -- he did it for the Raiders for seven years and they were nails. What if we had James Lofton as our WR coach?

Point is Art Shell, in my view, has a presence that commands respect. I think the players would welcome that. Remember Randy Moss saying we need a hard nose? I think Shell is pretty close. The problem he had the first time around is that his coaching staff tried to undermine what he was doing. Not sure how that all went down and maybe that's a bigger problem than I want to admit. I dunno.

Anyway, given the circumstances, having Art Shell as our head coach might be what we need. A guy who knows Al Davis and understands how to operate in t hat environment. It’s not to say that Whisenhunt or Petrino wouldn’t have done a great job because I think either would have but we all know the problems in Oakland that pushed them away.

We're going to know soon. I don't see how Al can drag this out much longer.

[Angel]

So....you don't think Jim Fassel is in the mix anymore then? Just wondering. :)

[JC]

Jim Fassel is bigtime in the mix, I think Al likes the fact that he made Kerry Collins win...dunno how, but he did.

[Rupert]

I don't think anyone knows how.

[XLRaider]

I think we can win with Shell. He'll need a good to excellent OC, but I think he has all the tools necessary to be an excellent HC.

[Rob]

I think we can win with Shell. He'll need a good to excellent OC, but I think he has all the tools necessary to be an excellent HC.

Thats exactly how I feel.:)

[Angry Pope]

I feel confident that Art and the staff he puts together will make us a better ball club. Shell will turn this thing around, in my opinion.

[Crow]

Do we have an OC yet, or are we still trying to figure that part out?

[Angry Pope]

I think it is the latter but the rumor is that Tom Walsh will be the OC, Jackie Slater the offensive line coach, and Irv Eatman assumes the same position he had in KC, assistant offensive line coach.

I don't much about Walsh other than what I posted before...so knowing if he is conservative in his play calling is a major question. Robiskie was supposedly the OC for much of Art's first go around. I know Walsh spent a lot of years with us.

[Angel]

Do we have an OC yet, or are we still trying to figure that part out?
Maybe, just MAYBE, Al will let the HC choose the OC :)

[gostar_baiter]

Edited by CrossBones

No spamming goof ball!

[Plunkett16]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Per KFFL
Raiders | Walsh officially hired
Thu, 23 Feb 2006 05:54:46 -0800

Jerry McDonald, of the Oakland Tribune, reports the Oakland Raiders have hired Tom Walsh as their new offensive coordinator. Other than a brief stint coaching minor league football in 1999, Walsh hasn't coached full time since resigning under pressure as head coach at Idaho State after two seasons and a 6-16 record.

ALSO

Raiders | Sims hired
Thu, 23 Feb 2006 05:58:01 -0800

Jerry McDonald, of the Oakland Tribune, reports the Oakland Raiders have hired Daryl Sims as their new defensive line assistant coach. He will work under defensive line coach Keith Millard.
Raiders | Slater hired
Thu, 23 Feb 2006 05:56:38 -0800

Jerry McDonald, of the Oakland Tribune, reports the Oakland Raiders have hired former NFL OT Jackie Slater to work with Irv Eatman and the Raiders offensive line

[DorisAxline]

Hi folk!
Which type of script-engine does this forum use?
I want the same one.
There are no any shit topics like buy viagra (http://NOSPAMMING) and others :)
Please, help me.
Thanks in advance!!!

Edited by CrossBones: Heh...NO SPAMMING. Where do these people come from?

[Angel]

Hey Bones....were those 2 really banned? Just curious!! :)

[CrossBones]

Hey Bones....were those 2 really banned? Just curious!! :)Yeah. After I checked them out...one had a Russian email address and the other was just some sort of spammer. I've seen that before.

[Angry Pope]

Here is an article on our selection of Art....

Shell, Raiders remain perfect fit

By Michael Smith


LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- How do I say it? There is something really right, something quite natural, something rather appropriate, fitting, just plain good about Art Shell's coaching the Raiders again, representing the franchise -- with his presence at Tuesday morning's AFC coaches/media breakfast and every day through his persona -- again. Shell's return is all those things not just for Oakland but for the league, for the game.

Some of the hires this offseason, you might call them head scratchers. Not Shell's. The Raiders' search for a head coach was prolonged and confusing, but in the end, settling on Shell made so much sense.

And so now here he is, after almost a dozen seasons, back where he belongs, again a member of the elite fraternity of NFL coaches. Blending in and yet still standing out, because if you had to do it all over again and match each coach to a club, Art Shell should always be a Raider. Tuesday he wore a white Raiders polo and black pants to breakfast. He's even got the silver hair going.

"It's good for Art and it's good for the Raiders," said Chiefs coach Herman Edwards, seated at the table next to Shell's.

Next to Edwards' table, Tony Dungy holds court. Romeo Crennel and Marvin Lewis are over on the other side of the room. On Wednesday morning, Dennis Green and Lovie Smith will meet with the media. There are an all-time high seven African-American head coaches. Shell was the first, back in 1989. He's also the latest. Yet another season why it's good to see him back.


"He's part of that Raider family," Edwards continued, "that folklore, The Nation. At the end of the day, he is a Raider."

Meanwhile, the Raiders haven't been themselves: their nasty, aggressive, confident, bad (not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good) selves the past few years. Try 13-35 over the three seasons since losing Super Bowl XXXVII. Oakland put itself back on the map in the early part of the decade under Jon Gruden, but the reality is the greatness of the Raiders has been missing since Al Davis fired Shell and his .586 winning percentage after the 1994 season. Try eight losing seasons since.

Last season, in going winless in the division, the franchise hit rock bottom. Enter Shell, the Hall of Fame and eight-time Pro Bowl left tackle and perhaps more important, a career Raider. Who better to try to revitalize the Raider mystique, to connect the past with the present, than a man who helped create it in the 1970s?

It's a shame that Shell was made to wait as long as he did for a second chance while watching as so many less-qualified coaches came, went, and, in some cases, were recycled while Shell, after stints on staffs in Kansas City and Atlanta following his exit from Oakland, drifted as far from the sideline as the league office. Shell had interviews, including a five-hour sit-down with the Dolphins last year, but no job offers.

"I wasn't sitting there looking out the window waiting for an opportunity," Shell said. "But there was always an attraction to being on the sideline, working with the players."

No, it wasn't right that Shell was denied another opportunity. But in the end, right now, everything's right. Shell is where he belongs. It's hard to imagine his having been another team's head coach.

"The Raiders, that's home to me," he said. "That's where I grew up, spent 27 years in that organization. To come home and try to bring the team back to its winning ways, it's exciting to me.

"It's like when your father calls you and tells you it's time to come home."

Shell's greatest challenge might not be getting the most out of newly acquired quarterback Aaron Brooks or maximizing the talents of Randy Moss or getting a young defense to play well but rather getting the team to understand what it means to be a Raider. One of Oakland's problems last year is that the players didn't comprehend that games at Denver, at Kansas City, weren't regular road trips. Those are rivalries, and those teams' fans hate anyone in a Raiders uniform. If you're a Raider you have to love that, being hated.

Shell has to teach guys who were babies the last time the Raiders ran things how to go about winning … baby. It's a simple formula. The Raider mystique returns when Oakland starts winning again. How much they win depends on how hard they work. Accountability is a big theme in Alameda, Calif., these days. The Raiders had collectively forgotten that ideal the past few years. Progressively the professionalism left the building.

"People talk about mystique," Shell said. "Mystique in my mind, like I told the players the other day, [is] about toughness. What is toughness? Everybody has a different idea about what toughness is. Toughness to me is execution. I can line up and run a route on you and I'm successful, and we've got to have it again, I'm going to run that route and I'm going to beat you. If I'm an offensive line, we're going to block you, get 5 yards, when we come back, we'll get 5 more yards. That's toughness. That's execution.

"That's where I've got to get them to, to where when we come into a game, we will have to conduct ourselves to win. There's a certain attitude we have to have.

"I really believe I can get the players to understand when they hear statements like, 'Commitment to Excellence,' that they understand what those statements mean. They are phrases to some, but they mean something to me."

[Angry Pope]

Words from Art...

Shell expects second stint with Raiders to be different

BARRY WILNER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. - Art Shell hasn't been an NFL head coach in more than a decade, and never coached the Raiders when they were in Oakland.

He's back with the team where he spent his entire Hall of Fame career, and Shell knows things will be different from his earlier stints as a tackle and then as a coach.

"I've got more experience," Shell said Tuesday at the NFL meetings' coaches breakfast attended by all AFC coaches except New England's Bill Belichick. "After I coached the Raiders (54-38 from 1989-94), I went to Kansas City and Atlanta and had a chance to see different organizations and how things are done. It was good for me."

Shell almost became Miami's coach before last season, but Nick Saban got the job. While working in the NFL office for the last five years, he wasn't actively seeking a return to the sideline at age 59, but he didn't rule it out.
And when the Raiders came calling, it was an easy choice.

"You always have those fires in the bottom of your stomach," Shell said. "I don't mind the challenge. The Raiders are home, where I grew up and spent 27 years. I've come to be part of trying to get the team back to its winning ways. It's exciting to me."

The Raiders have won only 13 games over the last three years after making the Super Bowl in the 2002 season.

[Angry Pope]

Here is another article on Art...

NFL Owners Meetings: Shell's new job follows dream

By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/28/2006

ORLANDO, FLA. — Art Shell has dreamt about the day he would return as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. No, really.

"It was the strangest thing," Shell said Tuesday at the AFC coaches breakfast. "I've had dreams that it would occur. You wake up and you go, 'What the hell are you dreaming about?'"

It has been a long wait for Shell, 59. Four games into the 1989 season, he replaced Mike Shanahan as Raiders head coach. He went 54-38 in five-plus seasons, including three playoff appearances. That's a record many coaches would envy. But at the time, it failed to impress Raiders owner Al Davis.

Shell was fired after the '94 season, and despite his impressive won-loss record, he had to wait 12 years before getting another chance as an NFL head coach. Later in the '90s, he worked as an assistant coach in Kansas City and Atlanta. More recently, he has worked for the NFL office in New York City, with the most recent title of senior vice president of football operations. Advertisement


As the years rolled by, Shell was interviewed for head-coaching jobs with Houston, Cleveland, New Orleans, Oakland, Miami.

But each time the job went to someone else. In 1994, he was a pioneer of sorts as the first black head coach in the modern NFL era. But as the years passed, he became more of an afterthought, while other, less successful head coaches got second and third chances. Why that was the case, Shell isn't exactly sure.

"There's some frustration, but you can't get involved in that, because then that'll drive you crazy," Shell said. "You can't get angry. If you get angry, what are you going to do? Are you going to fight somebody? Hit somebody? You can't do that. You've just got to move on."

Twelve years later, Davis has hired Shell for another tour of duty with the Silver & Black, replacing Norv Turner as head coach.

Shell's task is daunting. For one, Davis is ailing. He frequently uses a walker these days to get around and is not in attendance at the NFL owners meetings this week.

On the field, the Raiders are ailing as well. Over the past three seasons, the team is 13-35, tied for the worst record in the league (with San Francisco).

Somehow, Shell must rekindle the Raiders mystique. He must educate the current generation of Oakland players about the franchise's history, tradition and its motto: Commitment to Excellence.

"I have to get to the point where I'm talking about what it means to be a Raider," Shell said. "What it means when the phrase Commitment to Excellence is used. The will to win. The greatness of the Raiders. I will discuss what those things mean. What they meant to me. And what it should mean to them. And what the Raiders are all about."

[CrossBones]

"I have to get to the point where I'm talking about what it means to be a Raider," Shell said. "What it means when the phrase Commitment to Excellence is used. The will to win. The greatness of the Raiders. I will discuss what those things mean. What they meant to me. And what it should mean to them. And what the Raiders are all about."This is great.

Listen up you buncha dummies. The party is over. The Raiders are getting back to their roots.

[Rupert]

... and Art is going to kick a little ass when he thinks about 12 years of sitting NOT on the sidelines. "Oh! You little bastards think you're going to slip and slide because your last coach was a pussy? Well, queerbait, I ain't getting my ass fired cuz you won't bust yours."

[JC]

... and Art is going to kick a little ass when he thinks about 12 years of sitting NOT on the sidelines. "Oh! You little bastards think you're going to slip and slide because your last coach was a pussy? Well, queerbait, I ain't getting my ass fired cuz you won't bust yours."

I never looked at it like that...but that's a valid point, he will force wins out of this squad, just hope we can get some talent to get us over.

[Angry Pope]

More Art.....

Raiders insider:: Shell: No major changes planned, except in attitude

Oakland must make a stronger commitment to winning, he says.

By Jim Jenkins -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, April 1, 2006

In his second tour as the Raiders' coach, Art Shell envisions more of a tuneup for the sputtering team than an overhaul.
If there is a major adjustment, Shell says, it will be in their attitude.


"We have to develop the talent, get players to understand what it takes to win. That's our goal right now," Shell said at the NFL meeting last week in Orlando, Fla.
Shell, 59, has been on the job for only six weeks but said he likes the feedback he has received from players he has visited.

"Let me tell you something about players," Shell said. "People say times have changed, and times have changed. But when you get right down to it, all players want the same thing. They want direction ... where we're going and how are we going to get there. Give them that, and they'll be fine.

"There are certain guidelines, certain rules, certain disciplines involved in the game of football that we have to go by. And I think they understand that."

Shell said one goal this season will be to create mutual respect among players and coaches and stop the blame game when things don't go well.

"I told the team, 'I'm accountable for getting us back to our winning ways. The coaches are going to be held accountable, and the players are going to be held accountable. Everybody has a part to play. If we take care of our part, then we have a chance to be successful,' " Shell said.

In watching the Raiders from afar as an administrator in the NFL's New York offices before returning to his old team, Shell admittedly was dismayed by what he saw - athletes in disarray.

"When you play in this organization and help build the foundation of winning they had, to see them go into a tailspin, that's bothersome," Shell said. "You don't know why it happened or how, but now I'm in the position to try to rectify that. And I look to get that done."

Shell, fired by owner Al Davis despite a 54-38 (.587) record from 1989 to 1994, would like to believe he has convinced his boss he can right the ship.

"He's a very optimistic man," Shell said of Davis. "He just believes we're going to get this thing turned around, and I'm a very strong believer in that. This is not a rebuilding year. I don't look at it that way."

Shell said he also looks forward to rebuilding the Raiders' mystique and image, as the team mottos, "Pride and Poise" and "Commitment to Excellence," have taken a beating.

"Mystique, in my mind, is all about toughness," Shell said. "And toughness to me is execution (of plays), to really develop that swagger when we come into a game, knowing how to conduct ourselves in order to win.

"There's a certain attitude you have to have. I believe I can get players to understand what I mean. 'Commitment to Excellence' (and other mottos) are phrases to some. But when I played, they meant something."


Et cetera
One perk for first-year coaches is an extra minicamp, and Shell is considering mid-April for his, or two weeks before the April 29-30 draft.
* As the NFL continues to study putting a franchise back in the Los Angeles area, the Raiders still are pursuing their territorial rights suit against the league to win compensation for allegedly being forced out of the market at the end of the 1994 season. The Raiders lost the original $1.2 billion trial, but through appeals believe they will get another chance in court, perhaps this year, according to the team's general counsel, Jeff Birren.

[CrossBones]

Art is talking the kind of talk I like.

Getting this across to the players and having them execute is the next challenge in our coach's path!

I really hope Art can deliver on what he believes.

[Angel]

Art is talking the kind of talk I like.

Getting this across to the players and having them execute is the next challenge in our coach's path!

I really hope Art can deliver on what he believes.
He talks the talk.....now you gotta hope the team can do it's part!! :p

[Angry Pope]

Here are some more thoughts from Art....

Shell Realizes Dream Of Leading Raiders Again

By KATHERINE SMITH ksmith@tampatrib.com

Published: Apr 9, 2006

LAKE BUENA VISTA - Art Shell would awaken to a recurring dream and wonder what was going on and why the same thought kept returning.

In the dream, Shell was again the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. But how could that be? Shell hadn't been on the Raiders' sideline since owner Al Davis fired him in 1994.

The NFL offices in New York had become his sideline. Shell was the league's senior vice president for football operations and development. From time to time, his name would pop up when a head coaching vacancy opened. He interviewed with a few teams, but had resigned himself to a life away from the field.

Then he got the call. Just after the Super Bowl in early February, Shell received a phone call from Davis.

"It's like your father calls you and [says] 'OK, it's time to come home, let's sit down and talk,'" Shell said at last week's NFL owners meetings.

Before he knew what happened, Shell's dream had become a reality. He was named the Raiders' coach Feb. 11.

"It's the right time for me to come back," Shell said. "I look forward to it. I love this organization. I'm going to take it back to its winning ways."

After his firing, Shell attended a handful of Oakland games. He also watched from a distance as the organization fell deeper and deeper into the NFL abyss. And he didn't like what he saw.

"When you played in this organization and helped build the foundation that they have of winning and to see them go into a tailspin like they have the last couple of years, it's bothersome," said Shell, who played 15 seasons in Oakland and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989. "You don't know why it happened or how it happened, but now I'm in a situation where I can help rectify that."

Much has changed since Shell last walked the sideline. Watching game film, he's noticed more zone blitzing, the players make a lot more money, and he's no longer the only minority head coach.

And as for the Raiders' mystique, the black and silver is a bit tarnished these days. Following an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII against the Bucs with only 13 victories in three seasons will do that.

One thing hasn't changed for Shell. Oakland's motto of "Commitment to Excellence" rings as true today as it did when he was a player and during his first stint as head coach. Regaining that mentality is simple, Shell said - just win, baby.

"People say times have changed," Shell said. "Times have changed, but when you get right down to it, all the players want the same thing. They want direction - where are we going and how are we going to get there. And if you give them that kind of leadership, give them that kind of direction, then they'll be fine."

After the Raiders fired Shell in 1994, he found work as an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs, then the Atlanta Falcons and he finally found his way to the league office.

Every now and then, Shell's name would emerge for various head coaching vacancies. The Raiders even interviewed him before hiring current Bucs coach Jon Gruden.

This year, Shell decided, would be the last he would be a candidate for open jobs. He liked the work he was doing for the league, but something kept pulling him back to the sideline. He missed the interaction with players, the preparation and games.

And he missed the Raiders. The organization Shell spent most of his NFL life with has a strange hold on him. It began during his playing days. Shell wore the silver and black for 15 seasons, earning Pro Bowl honors eight times.

As a head coach from 1989 to 1994, he led the Raiders to the playoffs three times, including the AFC Championship Game in 1990. He was a part of three Oakland Super Bowl titles, two as a player and one as an assistant coach.

When he took over as head coach four games into the 1989 season, Shell became the first black in the modern era to hold that title.

Now he's joined by six black NFL coaches who have gladly welcomed him back.

"You always know that when you're the first, whether you like it or not, the spotlight is on you," Kansas City coach Herman Edwards said. "What he did in Oakland, I think they're figuring it out now that he did a heck of a job. He's going to bring stability there.

"Art Shell understands the Raider Nation. Now when Art Shell addresses that team, they will listen. He knows where the ghosts are."

[CrossBones]

Art seems to hve that fire in his belly.

We never heard stuff like this from Norval Turner. Man I'm glad that guy is gone.

Long Live the Shell Era!!!

[Angel]

Art seems to hve that fire in his belly.

We never heard stuff like this from Norval Turner. Man I'm glad that guy is gone.

Long Live the Shell Era!!!
I just don't think Norv Turner was aggressive enough to be a good head coach....seems more like he let the players tell him what to do more than him telling them......Getting rid of him was the best thing the Raiders could've done!!

[Rupert]

Oh, now, don't come down so hard on old Norv. He asked the players real nicely to follow his program. He even said please.

[Angel]

Oh, now, don't come down so hard on old Norv. He asked the players real nicely to follow his program. He even said please.
Yeah, that's what I was thinkin' Rupert.....and those guys just laughed in his face too I bet!! :p

[Angry Pope]

From Art....

After going 12 years without another chance to become a head coach, Art Shell believed 2006 and the Raiders to be his last chance.

"I had resigned myself that this might not happen," Shell told reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando. "I was working in the league office, I was excited about doing that. I was doing well there. But something always kept coming up about football. I had said this is the last time I would let anyone throw my name into anything, that I would not be involved in it after this year. So it went down to the wire."

[Angry Pope]

A comment on the draft from Art...

A Hall of Fame tackle as a player, Shell is already on record as saying he would like to fortify the Raiders' offensive line. So it wouldn't be out of character if he wanted another top pick for that unit, as happened in 2004 when the Raiders made Robert Gallery from Iowa the second overall choice. Certainly, there are other more pressing needs than quarterback with Brooks aboard.

If that is Shell's belief, how much input will he have in who is picked?

"When I was here before," Shell said of his first head-coaching stint with the Raiders from 1989 to '94, "I always had input in personnel decisions. But people have to understand that Mr. Davis has the final say-so. I will say this: If there's somebody I don't want, he won't take him."

[Angel]

If there's somebody I don't want, he won't take him."

Hey Bones.......got any "in" with Shell? Tell him to say no to Young!! :)

[CrossBones]

Hey Bones.......got any "in" with Shell? We're having lunch in San Francisco on Wednesday. I'll talk it over with him.

[Angel]

We're having lunch in San Francisco on Wednesday. I'll talk it over with him.
I kinda figured ya would ;)