Al Davis has released Tom Cable. Adam Schefter reported that the eccentric Oakland Raiders owner has decided to let loose his mildly successful head coach. The Raiders, who finished the season a fairly successful 8-8, now msut start over, and begin the search for a new candidate.
Before we discuss Cable's replacement, let's discuss his rocky tenure. He was the offensive line coach for the Raiders before being promoted after the firing of Lane Kiffin. Cable's first two seasons were 9-19, but he finally turned it around in his third year and seemed to finally have his guys moving in the right direction.
Although the players long backed their head coach (particularly one of the best defenders in the league in Nnamdi Asomugha), Davis has never liked Cable much, and was expecting much better than 8-8. So he'll likely look to another offensive playcaller, perhaps current Raiders offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, who was hired before the 2010 season and has apparently clashed with Cable on a few occasions. Perhaps the San Francisco 49ers interview of Jackson was enough to convince Davis to get going with letting Cable loose.
And now we have two vacant Bay Area NFL jobs. Don't expect there to be too much fanfare concerning this decision though; it might come swiftly.
For more on Cable's release, head over to Silver and Black Pride.