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When Jon Gruden was brought back by the Raiders in 2018, one of the early additions to his coaching staff was Tom Cable as offensive line coach. The veteran coach was once the head coach for the silver and black but had little success. Fans weren’t thrilled to see him return but he did a decent job with the offensive line in 2019 and 2020.
However, Cable apparently still had his faults. One of the notable storylines with the Raiders last offseason was their interest in Kyle Long. The three-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman is the son of team legend Howie Long and it seemed logical he would sign with the team. He was brought in for a workout and it was just a matter of time before he was signed.
That didn’t end up happening and he decided to sign with the Kansas City Chiefs – much to the dismay of Raiders fans. There might be more clarity as to why he didn’t sign with the team. Recently, a clip of Nebraska’s Cam Jurgens doing bizarre workouts at his Pro Day started going viral. People were mocking the unorthodox workouts he was doing. This led Long to take a shot at Cable by saying that Jurgens’ Pro Day was “essentially” Tom Cable’s NFL free agent workout.
Long was clearly referencing his workout with the Raiders last year that ended with not getting a contract.
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Raiders Won’t Miss Cable
Cable gets a bad wrap with some NFL fans but he’s far from the worst coach in the league. In 2019, the Raiders finished eighth in sacks allowed with 29 and then 10th in sacks allowed in 2020 with 28. Those certainly aren’t bad numbers considering the team suffered many injuries on the offensive line during those two seasons.
Unfortunately, the group took a major step back in 2021 and allowed 40 sacks. Cable deserves a lot of responsibility for that as he was the one pounding the table for the Raiders to draft Alex Leatherwood in the first round. He ended up having a very bad rookie season. Cable couldn’t solve the offensive line issues as they persisted all season. After last year’s performance, there was no way new head coach Josh McDaniels was going to keep him on staff.
Carmen Bricillo Has Had Success Early in NFL Career
To replace Cable, McDaniels hired former Patriots offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo. He’s only been an NFL coach since 2019 after spending over a decade in the college ranks. In 2020, he split offensive line coaching duties with Cole Popovich before taking over sole responsibilities last season.
In his first season as the sole offensive line coach, the Patriots only allowed 28 sacks, which was third-best in the NFL. Not too bad for a young coach. New England did have more talent on the offensive line than the Raiders have right now but Bricillo does have an elite left tackle in Kolton Miller and an emerging center in Andre James. If he can develop Leatherwood to play like a first-round pick in Year 2, then the Raiders could have a solid group.
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