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KNJ Fired

BackinBlack

By BackinBlack
in Las Vegas Raiders

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808sinfour4time

808sinfour4time

Posted
Posted
30 minutes ago, Nodisrespect said:

I mean, he had 6 games left on his contract lol, and the offense is worse than the defense lol. Such a scapegoating move, it's not like jdr can't or hasn't been overriding him the whole time anyway.

I just want JDR and Downing to follow.

The bolded just isn't true by any metric that I'm aware of.  I would totally go with the offense as more disappointing than the defense, but it hasn't been empirically worse than the defense.  (That I am probably more upset by the offense's performance than the defense's just speaks to how resigned I've become to the defense's ongoing awfulness.)

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drfrey13

drfrey13

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I do not believe I am the person who you are waiting on but here is my 2 cents.  We have been waiting a while for KNJ to develop into a good coordinator and it was not happening.  It was pretty clear that he was not the type of coach we wanted at that position to get us where we want to go.  Was he limited by injuries? Yes but he showed zero ability to adapt when having to do anything with out Seattle level of talent.  Playing the Patriots is always a tough test but to completely blow it after a bye week is completely inexcusable.  Our chances now of making the playoffs are almost zero so the team wants to see what Pagano can do.  If he fails we start a d-coordinator search in the off-season but if he can get the team moving in a positive direction maybe he is our guy.  Yes it will be tough to turn this D around quickly but his first test is to do better than KNJ which is a pretty low bar.

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NickButera

NickButera

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43 minutes ago, drfrey13 said:

I do not believe I am the person who you are waiting on but here is my 2 cents.  We have been waiting a while for KNJ to develop into a good coordinator and it was not happening.  It was pretty clear that he was not the type of coach we wanted at that position to get us where we want to go.  Was he limited by injuries? Yes but he showed zero ability to adapt when having to do anything with out Seattle level of talent.  Playing the Patriots is always a tough test but to completely blow it after a bye week is completely inexcusable.  Our chances now of making the playoffs are almost zero so the team wants to see what Pagano can do.  If he fails we start a d-coordinator search in the off-season but if he can get the team moving in a positive direction maybe he is our guy.  Yes it will be tough to turn this D around quickly but his first test is to do better than KNJ which is a pretty low bar.

Yup. We have the Defensive player of the year, the best (or 2nd best) DE in the league, and we've been bottom of the league in sacks the last two years. We've now broken a record for most games without an INT, there are too many stats like this that just scream, bad defensive game planning. 

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drfrey13

drfrey13

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1 hour ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Just had a good little chuckle to myself. I looked on the Instagram picture the Raiders posted talking about KNJ being let go, and one like was from Obi.

I hope he was going thru and just clicking like on everything.  KNJ was well liked by some vets who may take exception to him doing that on purpose. If Mack did it that would not be good but he has earned that right.  Coming from Obi I do not think some will keep their mouths shut about it.  I like the honesty though.

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Rolni

Rolni

Posted
Posted

I'm glad we finally let him go.

We should have done this in January.

Pagano should be able to prepare better and scheme better against the weaknesses of the opposition.

With that said I don't expect a top 15 unit all of a sudden.

I hope JDR let Pagano twist the scheme and call blitzes and show what he can do with this roster.

 

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OakRaiders3828

OakRaiders3828

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Question is, will Pagano be able to run his defense, or just a version of JDR's? He was brought in to help the secondary and they certainly are a massive part of the problem. 

I'm hoping his. I want to believe JDR was just trying to step in because of how bad Ken norton proved to be. I guess we will see 

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holyghost

holyghost

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43 minutes ago, OakRaiders3828 said:

I'm hoping his. I want to believe JDR was just trying to step in because of how bad Ken norton proved to be. I guess we will see 

But all signs in the Norton fiasco point to this defense being Del Rio's. Every bit of available evidence says Norton was groomed and directed by JDR. Why else would there be no criticism of Norton over 2+ years of ineptitude (because Del Rio would be criticizing himself), and why else would a coach pick someone who had and has shown no aptitude for the job at any point. 1 point signals "unqualified" for Norton - inability to excel at what was his previous job. The guy, if he was in fact an excellent LB coach who was ready for a DC job, at least should have been able to coach a semblance of a strong LB unit. At the very least, coach it above it's talent level. So from day one, the guy was showing big warning signs.

And no, Pagano won't be able to run his defense, in theory. Because you can't install and teach a new defense in week 12. Pagano has nothing to lose in 6 remaining games trying to tweak things and call games as he sees fit, so we can hope for that. But definitely do not hope for a massive upheaval because it just isn't possible now. Even the bye week would have helped a hair. This is exactly how you totally screw something up. The contrast is really fitting for this time - the difference between how Oakland and New England operate, considering we just played them. 

Firing Norton now is a debacle. It only contributed to costing us a shot at the playoffs, 10 games late for something we all basically knew was coming.. Don't expect the staff (JDR) has any real faith in Pagano, so question whether or not you should as a fan. The guy was added on staff for exactly this outcome, mid season replacement for Norton. It's baked into his utterly vague job description, which might as well have read "interim mid season defensive coordinator". We all saw that coming when he was hired. It doesn't make him an answer to the problem. Some people were excited about the addition, but think about the context. As if replacing the DC in week 12 is a good thing?

 

The answer to the problem is either - fire Del Rio (which isn't likely to happen following his extension) or telling him straight out that he has to get out of the defense and hire legitimately qualified coordinators. And those things are only answers if the dysfunction throughout the staff is fixed. 

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holyghost

holyghost

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, OakRaiders3828 said:

It just doesn't make much sense, if Pagano is expected to call the same defense, then why fire Norton?

It makes perfect sense. Sacrificial lamb, it may help Del Rio not have the axe fall on him. Gotta blame someone when you're 4-6.

Pagano isn't "expected" to call the same defense per se. But he can't call a totally different one if he can't install and teach it. You think Del Rio and the rest of the staff doesn't understand this? You think they don't know that radical changes in week 12 are essentially absurd?

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