The Oakland Raiders made the decision to retain head coach Dennis Allen this week and while the team went 4-12 the past two seasons, owner Mark Davis realized that keeping a stable head coach is a way to help breed winning and after deconstructing the roster over the past two seasons, Allen can now decide whether to draft someone like Blake Bortles or if he will keep Terrelle Pryor and Matt McGloin at quarterback.
Last season the Raiders had stretches where they looked like a good team, but the roster put together by Reggie McKenzie could only do so much and now that the team has freed up $60 million in cap space, they have room to make moves this offseason. According to ESPN.com, Allen is being retained as head coach after meeting with Davis on Tuesday and the owner said that things are moving in the right direction and while there are issues with assistant coaches and other staffers, Allen will be remaining at head coach.
Allen still had two years left on his deal and after coming in as a defensive minded coach the franchise is going to expect improvements. The team signed Charles Woodson, Mike Jenkins and Tracy Porter in the offseason and also drafted Sio Moore and DJ Hayden, but there wasn't much improvement on the defensive side of the ball and now that will be a focus for the offseason. The Raiders finished the season 18th in the league in defense last year and 22nd this season and they ranked 28th in passing yards allowed and 13th in rushing yards allowed.
The team has the fifth pick in the draft and a name like Blake Bortles from UCF will continue to get brought up, as will other names. The team ranked 25th in passing yards per game and while Pryor and McGloin showed flashes, neither took hold of the starting job.
"We met this evening at the Raider facility, and the meeting went really well," Davis said. "We talked about a lot of things, from personnel issues to the coaches to a review of the past season to the draft and our needs for next season."
