Re-Building the O-Line with Cable

Tom Cable

The Raiders hired Tom Cable as their new offensive line coach on Tuesday, bringing in the former Atlanta Falcons line coach to take over wear Jackie Slater left off. You might be asking yourself right about now, why the hiring of an offensive line coach is a) newsworthy, b) interesting and/or c) of any relevance to fixing the Raiders offensive woes, the answer is, because the Atlanta Falcons led the NFL in rushing last season.

Can you name one running back on the Atlanta Falcons roster? Their 183.7 yards per game was tops in the NFL by more than 20 yards per game. In comparison, the Raiders averaged 94.9 yards per game. That’s almost double the rushing production over an entire season.

Now comes the bad news. The Raiders don’t have Michael Vick serving as a third back like the Falcons did last season, and with that league leading average, the Falcons were still tied for 26th in the league in rushing touchdowns with 9.

9 TDs is almost double the 5 the Raiders put into the end zone, but still, 9 does not compete with a LaDainian Tomlinson or Larry Johnson.

Flipping back to the positive, Cable knows new Raider offensive coordinator Greg Knapp’s system, so the transition should be easier than if he were walking into a blind situation. There is a history there.

Can the guy coach is the big question. He knows offenses. He served as the offensive coordinator at UCLA for two season (2004-05) and served as the head coach at Idaho for three years (2001-03). He also spent six years at Cal, serving as the O-line coach in Berkley.

If anything, the guy at least looks like an offensive line coach. If Oakland has guys getting hurt on the like they've had to endure the past few years, they can slap a helmet on the guy and send him out there!