Raiders:
Downing in, Musgrave out as coordinator
After reaching the playoffs, Oakland is looking forward to continue improving in the 2017 season. Some observers are even predicting a Super Bowl appearance.
The Raiders are not renewing offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s contract and will promote quarterbacks coach Todd Downing to fill that job, sources said Tuesday.
Oakland finished sixth in the NFL in total yards and seventh in points scored, but lost quarterback Derek Carr to a broken fibula Dec. 24 and then lost its AFC wild-card playoff game in
Houston on Saturday.
According to sources, Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio simply made a choice, as Downing had become a “hot” coaching candidate and was contacted by “4-5 teams” about jobs recently. Musgrave’s two-year contract expires in two weeks.
Carr made the Pro Bowl each of the past two years under Musgrave and Downing.
Downing, 36, was the quarterbacks coach for the Lions and Bills before joining the Raiders. He will be the fourthyoungest offensive coordinator in the NFL.
Downing played football at Eden Prairie High in Minnesota for Mike Grant, the son of Bud Grant, the Vikings’ Hall of Fame head coach. Downing became a public-relations intern for the Vikings at 19 and later earned a coaching internship under Mike Tice, the Raiders’ current offensive line coach.
This is the second time that Musgrave, 49, has been let go by Del Rio. The two were together in 2003-04 when the Jaguars’ head coach fired his offensive coordinator. Del Rio questioned Musgrave’s play-calling at several points this season, especially the lack of running plays, and has been heavy in his praise of Downing the past few weeks.
On Sunday, Del Rio brought up the scheme when asked about the second straight slow finish of receiver Amari Cooper’s two year-career. Cooper had 31 catches for 366 yards in the last eight games after he had 52 for 787 yards in the first eight games.
“Last year, I think it was clearly involved with his foot,” said Del Rio, who added the team will “go back and look at it, whether it was what they were doing to us or what we weren’t doing to provide those opportunities for him.
“Was the guy he was going against good enough to get him slowed down? Was it scheme? Was it design on our part? Those are all things we have to look at in detail.”
Defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., meanwhile, survived despite the Raiders’ defense finishing 26th in the league. Defensive backs coach Marcus Robinson’s contract was not renewed, though, a couple of days after Del Rio put the brunt of the burden on the big plays allowed — passing and running — on the defensive backs.