3 Reasons Why the Oakland Raiders Fired Marcus Robertson
Marcus Robertson joins Bill Musgrave as former Oakland Raiders’ assistants. Unlike Musgrave, however, Robertson did not sit at the helm of an impressive group. Also, the Raiders fired Robertson outright while allowing Musgrave’s contract to lapse without renewal. At least, Musgrave schemed the NFL’s sixth-ranked offense. On the other hand, Robertson’s secondary contributed to the 24th-ranked pass defense. That’s a perfect segue into four reasons the Raiders let him go:
1. He’s the scapegoat.
Head coach Jack Del Rio did not mince words at his season-ending press conference.
Why was the defense terrible? Explosive plays. Who was responsible for said plays? Robertson’s group.
“Explosive plays, whether you like it or not, they always come back to the secondary,” Del Rio said. “The front line, even if you have a front line that is full of holes, the back-end has a chance to cap the play before it goes explosive. Runs that get out big time, typically have to do with a missed tackle, poor leverage, missed assignment, something along those lines. In the back-end, obviously, balls go over the top of your head, missed tackles, missed assignments lead to long passes as well. That’s just the way it is.” Let’s quantify this: The Raiders allowed a whopping 61 passes of 20-plus yards and 16 bombs of the 40-plus yard variety.
AROUND COVER32
Mailbag: What to expect this weekend
Preview:: How will this exciting weekend play out?
Awards:: cover32’s end-of-season awards
2. Robertson isn’t a Del Rio guy.
Now, I’m not saying they didn’t get along, simply pointing out Robertson was a holdover from the Dennis Allen days. He earned a promotion from assistant DB coach to the secondary boss in 2014. Surely, Charles Woodson’s endorsement Robertson helped. “I’ve said countless times already, but he’s really helped me see the game better from a safety position,” Woodson said in a 2014 interview.
3. The cornerbacks regressed.
Big-money starters David Amerson and Sean Smith play poorly, at times. That is a far cry from the players they were during the 2015 season. The duo allowed big, back-breaking catches. Amerson resembled the Washington version of himself . For example, in this Mike Evans clip, he is routinely catching the ball while covered by Amerson.
In the final analysis, Marcus Robertson’s group failed to live up to expectations. Should he shoulder the blame for the defensive collapse? No. When a squad only musters 25 sacks, what can a secondary truly do? When the Oakland Raiders decided to retain Ken Norton, a position coach needed to go.
The post 3 Reasons Why the Oakland Raiders Fired Marcus Robertson appeared first on Cover32.
