At his season-ending press conference on Monday, Raiders coach Dennis Allen indicated he believed he would be back for a third season with the club.
Asked about Allen’s remarks and whether indeed he would return as coach in 2014, Raiders owner Mark Davis didn’t completely tip his hand, though Davis did pledge at least some short-term support for his head coach in an interview with Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News.
“My main thought is that Dennis has a contract that he signed two years ago,” Davis told Kawakami. “He’s fulfilled two years of it and [G.M.] Reggie [McKenzie] and I will sit down and talk, but yeah he’s the Raiders head coach right now.
“Really, the only people who’ve been replacing Dennis as head coach of the Raiders is the media. Am I correct? I’m still going by what I told you earlier, just let the process play itself out.”
Asked under what circumstances Allen might not be back, Allen told the Mercury News: “There’s always a scenario, you know that. I don’t know, what if John Madden decided he wanted to be a coach again?”
Davis declined to say whether he had talked to former Raiders coach Jon Gruden about a return to Oakland, with the owner telling the Mercury News he would never divulge any such discussions.
When Kawakami suggested that it appeared that Allen would return for a third season, Davis replied: “He is the coach of the Raiders right now, there’s no question about that.”
Davis told the Mercury News that he would likely meet with Allen next week.
Asked Monday if he had been told he would be back, Allen said: “I haven’t been told that I won’t. I wouldn’t say there’s been any guarantees made, but I’m moving forward in that direction. I fully anticipate and fully expect to be the coach of the football team, and that’s the way I’m moving forward.”
The Raiders have gone 4-12 in each of Allen’s first two seasons as head coach. However, they are in the midst of a rather drastic rebuilding process.