MVN: Most Valuable Network

The conflicting reports have come out of Oakland, first Rob Ryan is fired then he is not only not fired, but not to speculate about his job. With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' season ending with a loss to the New York Giants, the two most rumored replacements for the fired, not-fired, probably soon to be fired Ryan are available for the Raiders to talk to. The most intriguing candidate is Bucs' defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin who just happens to be the father of Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin. The other one is Bucs' defensive back coach Raheem Morris. Monte Kiffin's contract with the Bucs has expired, and he is now essentially a free agent. There has been a lot of talk about a potential father and son reunion in Oakland, which would definitely make for an interesting story line. The young head coach and his veteran assistant coach dad working together and taking on the league. Of course there is the question of whether Monte could take orders from his son. That would be a rather unorthodox power dynamic to say the least.

Raheem Morris is considered an up and coming coach, and it is rumored that Kiffin would love to bring him over from Tampa. The problem is that Tampa has him under contract though 2008 and they would have to let him out of his contract for him to come to Oakland. It is not like before where a coach could be hired over if it was a promotion, so the Raiders may have some difficulties bringing in Morris if he is their guy.

The wild card in this entire situation is the President of the General Partner of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis. Al Davis has long been a devotee of man to man bump and run defense, and both of those potential defensive coordinators run the Cover-2 zone defense. It will be interesting to see if Al can let go of that beloved part of his game plan and let Lane Kiffin bring in his type of defense. Additionally, the question would be if Al in his love of power could accept a father and son tandem working for him. He could become paranoid that they would conspire to take control from him.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Stay tuned to Thoughts from the Dark Side, as I will get more out there on the saga of the Raiders' defensive coordinator as I get it.