Oakland Raiders: Is This Tom Cable’s Team?

Tom Cable knew that as the Head Coach of the Oakland Raiders, he would have to change the overall attitude of a under achieving football team. Cable did wonders in his first two years as an offensive line coach, but now it was time to make that motivating, infectious attitude spread out to the overall football team.

This would not be an easy task.

Luckily, Cable has gotten the teams veterans to rally behind him. For a coach to fully grab hold of his football team, he must also make his mark through the NFL Draft.

When Cable took over in the middle of 2008, none of those players were his own picked players. He still found away to get that team to rally behind him.

In 2009, Cable was a significant part of the NFL Draft process. With the surprising pick of Darrius Heyward-Bey and the questionable pick of safety Mike Mitchell, it was clear that owner Al Davis took control of the drafting process.

However, the difference was the type of character these players had. Each of them with strong work ethics, and no history of poor judgement.

Unlike draft picks of the past.

Those qualities combined with the late round steal of WR Louis Murphy, and quality depth with DE Matt Shaughnessy, the 2009 Oakland Raider draft class was actually pretty good.

Now in 2010, it is clear that the Raiders have had their best overall draft class in quite some time.

MLB Rolando Mclain should be a focal point in the defense, along with second round pick DE Lamarr Houston. We also added needed depth on our O-line, Cable's forte, and depth to our defensive secondary.

In two years, the draft picks linked to Cable will be:

On offense, two wide receivers. A late round steal in Louis Murphy, who has proved to be a good player. Darrius Heyward-Bey, who struggled mightily his rookie season, but should do much better in the future. Both, for all intents and purposes, should ...