Oakland Raiders retain Al Saunders as senior offensive assistant – NFL News Update
While the Oakland Raiders have been making various changes to their team in recent weeks, they have decided to retain the former offensive coordinator, Al Saunders as a senior offensive assistant on their staff this season. The move was announced by the
team on Wednesday.
Al Saunders had been an offensive coordinator under former Head Coach, Hue Jackson and will now serve under the new coach, Dennis Allen.
Saunders has had a long career in the National Football League (NFL) that has comprised of 29 seasons. As a receivers coach for the St Louis Rams in 1999, he led the team to a Super Bowl win. Out of his 29 years in the NFL, he has been to the playoffs for
15 times.
The Oakland Raiders have been through many changes this year. It all started with the new owner, Mark Davis bringing in former assistant of the Green Bay Packers, Reggie McKenzie as the new general manager. McKenzie started up with immediately firing the
then coach Hue Jackson saying he wanted to bring his own man in.
McKenzie had said that changes were needed in the team and that it was time for a new “era”.
After a long search that was aimed at getting the best coach into the organisation, McKenzie finally decided to have former Denver Broncos’ coach, Dennis Allen as the new head coach after sidelining many strong contenders that included Packers’ coaches and
former Miami Dolphins’ interim coach.
Those were not the only changes that the Raiders made to their team. Greg Knapp was hired as the new offensive coordinator in place of Al Saunders and Steve Hoffman was brought in as the new special teams’ coordinator, while the former defensive assistant
of Stanford, Jason Tarver had recently been brought in as the new defensive coordinator.
Jackson had not been the only one to be fired this year. Defensive coordinator, Chuck Bresnahan was fired recently after taking in the heat for the Raiders elimination from playoffs this season.
The Raiders defence had fared poorly this season conceding an average of 5.1 yards per carry this season. They also broke the record for committing the most number of penalties this season which was formerly held by the Kansas City Chiefs for more than a
decade since 1998.
The Raiders finished at 8-8 this season being wiped out from the playoff contention and McKenzie coming up with his plans to make the Raiders a winning organisation.
The Raiders had been without a proper general manager ever since former owner Al Davis died the last year.
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