The Raiders made a change at offensive coordinator this offseason, sending Bill Musgrave packing and promoting Todd Downing from quarterbacks coach to the top assistant job. But while Downing’s role has changed, he says the offense won’t change much at all.
“I think there’s a certain amount of, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” Downing said, via ESPN. “I think you’re always ... looking for ways to tweak things and kind of adjust them to best fit your personnel and personalities. We won’t be doing wholesale changes. When I first got the job, we discussed that. There’s certainly going to be, every stone turned over to look for a way that we can do better.”
So why make the change from Musgrave to Downing? It may be simply a matter of having a coach running the offense who has a great relationship with quarterback Derek Carr. The two are close, and Carr said he sees himself as an extension of Downing on the field -- and a friend and golfing buddy of Downing off the field.
“There’s nothing that him and I don’t step into with each other,” Carr said of Downing. “To have that off the field is cool, just to have a friend like that, let alone your offensive coordinator.”
If Downing can get an even better year out of Carr in 2017 than he had in 2016, the coordinator change will look like a wise move.