Guenther's merry-go-round

Revolving door on defense leaves DC desperate

- Michael Wagaman

It’s hard to imagine Al Davis watching his defense get pounded three straight weeks and not coming unglued. Heads would roll and someone would lose his job, right? Even though the whole world knew Davis had major input on the weekly defensive game plans, the blame was always heaped on someone else’s shoulders.

Thus we come to Paul Guenther, the personally hand-picked defensive coordinator selected by Jon Gruden to put the Raiders long-suffering defense back in order.

Guenther has been working with a shorthand almost from Day One. He inherited a defense that was short on talent, long on expenses and had very little otherwise. Guenther called 2018 one of the most challenging of his coaching career.

Buoyed by the additions of a handful of veterans in key positions and a draft class heavily flavored in defense, Guenther expected things to be much better in 2019. Outside of a few bright moments here and there, that has failed to materialize.

The list of issues began with a season-ending injury to first-round draft pick Jonathan Abram less than 30 minutes into the regular season. Three-and-a-half weeks later Vontaze Burfict, who knows Guenther’s defense better than any other player, was suspended for the remainder of the season following a hit on Indianapolis tight end Jack Doyle.

It’s gotten worse since.