Why The Raiders Offensive Overhaul Is More Important Than You Think

Okay, only a few days ago since Luke Getzey was relieved of his duties as the Raiders offensive coordinator along with Rick Scangarillo and James Craig, the offensive line coach and quarterback coaches, respectively. Now, of course, you're thinking what I'm thinking. Does this really move the needle? At first, you might think it doesn't, but I'm going to sit here and tell you why I think this could be more important than initially I thought. Not in terms of winning any more football games. I think when you make coaching changes during the season, unless you're the Raiders, it usually doesn't help all that much. Now, we saw Rich Bisaccia take over and Greg Olsen take over for the offense that year. Rich Bisaccia took over for John Gruden and they won a bunch of games. AP, Bo Hardegre, maybe this will be another lightning in the bottom moment. This season, as far as the playoffs is concerned, is already over. We know this. However, the idea that someone like a Norv Turner is coming in as an offensive assistant, the idea that Scott Turner, his son, is now calling the plays, an experienced play caller, unlike Bo Hardegre who was last year when he took over. We need to discuss exactly why I think this is a little more important than you might understand. And it has to do with the idea of somebody like a Rich Bisaccia or an Antonio Pierce getting the job post-interim tag placed upon him. You'll see where I'm going in just a second. But first, let's head over to the screen recording where on Raiders.com they've announced the coaching changes. The Raiders have named Scott Turner as an interim offensive coordinator. Joe Philbin, another former head coach, as interim offensive line coach. And I've added Norv Turner to the coaching staff as a senior advisor. The club announced Tuesday. Scott Turner was previously the passing coordinator for the Raiders, coming to the Silver and Black in 2023, following three years as the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders. Turner, who played quarterback at UNLV before the beginning of his coaching career, had an influence with the Panthers, the Browns, and the Vikings. I know what you're thinking. Pre-Dan Quinn and Cliff Kingsbury, the Commanders' offense wasn't that good. However, I'm here to say that's not entirely true. I think the Commanders were able to put up a decent amount of points with pretty suspect quarterback play. So let's see what Scott Turner can do with this new offense that he's got. We'll see if it's Desmond Ritter or Aidan O'Connell who's the quarterback moving forward. I just want to see if Scott Turner is able to get some juice out of guys that have yet to produce at a level that we thought. Guys like Zamir White, guys like Trey Tucker, guys like Jacoby Myers. These guys are really good football players. And Luke Goetze, we all wanted to blame Luke Goetze, right? And the offensive line has been in shambles, too. If this offense improves where you can watch it with your eyes and go, Okay, hold on. Wait a second. This looks like an experienced play caller, offensive coordinator, who's adapting to the surroundings, getting the best out of a mediocre quarterback and feeding the offensive weapons and fixing the run game. There is a chance that Scott Turner, if AP is retained, can be the offensive coordinator for the Raiders moving forward. That's what I'm getting at here. That's why I think this is more important than initially we thought. AP was an interim head coach, won a bunch of games. It looked good. Defense was transformative. He got the interim tag removed. Scott Turner is now the interim offensive coordinator. He's not my first choice to take over the reins once the season's over. But if he can show, similarly to AP last year, that he's able to adapt to his surroundings and improve the offense, even if we still lose games, this guy is going to throw his hat in the ring. Joe Philbin joined the Raiders this season as a senior offensive assistant. And for nearly four decades of coaching experience, including four years of head coaching Miami Dolphins, he is now going to be the offensive line coach for the Raiders. That doesn't really move the needle for me. I think the offensive line needed help, and he's going to help them. Here's the last thing I want to talk about. Norv Turner returns for a second stint with the Raiders, having served as the head coach of the Silverbacks in 2004-2005. One of the most respected minds in football, Turner began his coaching career in 1975 and served 15 years as NFL head coach with three different teams. He was the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. Ever heard of them? 1990 Dallas Cowboys. Helping that franchise win two Super Bowl championships. And if you listen to Ian Rappaport here on Twitter, he's got a lot to say about legendary offensive mind Norv Turner. Now before I get to that video, I just want to show you here, nearly 58% of you that are watching are not yet subscribed to the channel. We are halfway to 11,000. If you could hit that subscribe button, that would mean the world to me. Oh, that would be so helpful. And by the way, if you're one of the people that is subscribed, make sure you're turning on all notifications for this channel by hitting the bell next to the subscribe button and then enabling YouTube notifications in your cellular device. That way, every time I upload a video, it gets sent directly to your phone. Last thing I want to show you before the video, patreon.com slash allaboardraiders. It is like a YouTube membership program, but instead of YouTube taking out 30% of the money that you're giving me, Patreon only takes up 5%. And with this Patreon membership at the $5 tier, you get videos days, weeks in advance, your name at the end of every single video. You get Patreon-exclusive content like me breaking down Cam Moore, Drew Allard, Shadour Sanders, Jalen Miller. I'm going to look at highlights and film for all of them and rank them. At the $10 tier, you get every single video I post ad-free, and you get put into my YouTube channel advice program, which is like a monthly video series that I do helping you grow your YouTube channel just like I've grown mine. Patreon.com slash allaboardraiders, and make sure you hit that subscribe button. Now, let's listen to what Ian Rappaport had to say about Norv Turner. Such a cool story for the Raiders, for the Turner family. I mean, Norv Turner being back in the NFL, the NFL is a better place. Here's what happened. So the Raiders, in the wee hours of the morning a couple days ago, fired several of their offensive coaches, including Luke Getzey. I think everyone knew at the time that Scott Turner would end up as the interim OC and play caller, but they had such a brain drain of just people to work on this offense that they needed help. And you can't really do better than one of the legends of offensive football, Norv Turner. And the fact that he happened to be available, the fact that he could also stop by and see his grandkids, maybe pick them up from an activity, work on carpooling. Okay, anyway, you get it. One of the legendary minds, and then he goes on to say, Norv Turner will absolutely help the Raiders offense moving forward. Here's what I want to discuss also. If Antonio Pierce is retained, think about this guy, Champ Kelly. Champ Kelly interviewed, right, for the GM job. He did not get it, but he was retained. Scott Turner, this is basically his interview to say, Hey, I can call plays for the Raiders moving forward. I can develop the next quarterback of this franchise. This is all assuming that the AP regime stays, right? If Scott doesn't end up being the guy, we could still retain him as whatever, the quarterback coach, the passing coordinator, get a new, young, fresh offensive coordinator to work under the tutelage of Norv Turner. As Ian Rappaport said, one of the game's legendary offensive minds. I know Antonio Pierce has been getting a lot of slack for having people around him like Tom Coughlin and Marvin Lewis and the team looking the way it looks, right? However, this is the first time Tom Pelesko was involved in bringing somebody in that AP maybe doesn't know as well as those other guys, and maybe Norv Turner will have a problem telling Antonio Pierce and his son specifically, this is how ---- gets done when you want to have a good offense. And I think AP needs people in his corner that are willing to push back on some of the ideas that he has. I do think Luke Goetze was a big problem for this team. I tried to do everything I could to give him the benefit of the doubt, but at the end of the day, he just was not a great situational in-game play caller. I think Scott and Norv Turner can right the ship in terms of making this offense look a little bit better, and I think the key is to simplify the run game and to get Brock Bowers and Jacoby Myers the football. Do not tell these quarterbacks, don't turn the ball over, we're going to lose, which is the case, but I don't want that in their psyche. I want them to play fast and free, whether that is Desmond Ritter or Aidan O'Connell. You cannot go back to Minchie because you benched him twice. That ship has sailed. He will not be on the roster next year. We now have to evaluate Desmond Ritter and Aidan O'Connell's chances to be the backup quarterback for this franchise moving forward and to usher in the next great quarterback that we draft. Is it going to be Shadora Sanders, Jalen Milrow, Drew Aller, Cam Ward? It's going to be one of those guys, right? Most likely. We need to have a competent backup because if we become the Miami Dolphins and our quarterback gets hurt, we need to have somebody like Aidan or Desmond that we trust to go in there and win a game or two. Look at the Green Bay Packers. Malik Willis is 2-0. Look at the Miami Dolphins. They've got 100 different quarterbacks who are thrown in there because they don't trust any of them. We need to use the rest of this season to see if Scott Turner has what it takes to take the reins and improve the offense or find a backup quarterback with Aidan O'Connell and Desmond Ritter. So that's where I stand on all that. I'm rooting for Scott Turner. We are obviously coming into the bye week, so we're going to get healthy. We're going to get our guys back. Hopefully Aidan's ready to go by then just because I need to see a somewhat competent quarterback under center. I don't know what Desmond Ritter can be. He did some okay things when he came in, but he was kind of a turnover machine too. We'll see what Scott and North Turner can do, and we'll see if the offensive line has even improved with Joe Philbin. Anyway, guys, thank you so much for watching this video. Make sure you join in that Discord link in the description below. It is completely free. Join the Patreon, patreon.com slash allaboyrader. Shout out to all my patrons showing up on the screen right now. Please be sure to subscribe. It is free. I have no charge to you. I love you guys. I'll see you next time.