[Lefty Noob]

After being spurned by Ken Whisenhunt and Bobby Petrino this week, Al Davis has re-hired Art Shell as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Shell was 54-38 during his first stint with the team.

Good hire? Well, since Davis canned Shell 11 years ago, the Raiders have been through five different coaches. Shell had four winning seasons as the Raider coach, and the team's only had three since then (of course, one was an AFC Championship).

Of course, he doesn't have a staff, most of the good assistants are already committed to other jobs, and the combine starts in less than two weeks. So what should we expect out of the Raiders in 2006?

[BigBadBuc]

Lefty,

Coaches don't want to go to the Raiders. Al Davis needs to step aside. His day has come and gone. The Raiders are a proud but struggling organization and need a lift from a new owner with some vision and fresh ideas.

BBB

[EmpireWF]

It's a sad day when they couldn't find a single NCAA coach or a single NFL coordinator who wanted to be head coach fo the Raiders.

Art Shell can't do any worse then these recent terrible coaches, so all the power to him.

Shell was a coach before I paid attention to the NFL so I don't know much about him. Is he an offensive or defensive minded coach?

[Lefty Noob]

Offensive. He was an 8-time Pro Bowler as a tackle with the Raiders before going into coaching, and after Davis canned him he was an offensive line coach for six years, splitting time with the Chiefs and Falcons.

I love this, though, from the AP: "Davis also interviewed Al Saunders, James Lofton and Rod Marinelli, and had talks with former St. Louis Rams coach Mike Martz, Oakland quarterbacks coach John Shoop and Louisville coach Bobby Petrino." All of them turned him down!

He kept talking about it being between Lofton, Shell and a "Mystery Candidate". Any bets that the "Mystery Candidate" was... Al Davis? LOL!