OAKLAND (Reuters) – The Oakland Raiders have parted company with head coach Tom Cable, declining to extend the contract of their sidelines leader of the past two-plus seasons, the team announced on its website (raiders.com) on Tuesday.

Oakland had until January 17 to exercise Cable’s contract option for two years and $5 million but decided to cut ties.

Cable had just led the Raiders to an 8-8 season record that is the franchise’s best mark since 2002.

He took over as the interim coach for the fired Lane Kiffin in 2008 and posted a mark of 17-27 during his tenure.

A popular figure among the players, Cable’s departure came as a surprise to some of the Raiders.

“This is going to hit 99 percent of the locker room really hard because people respected how he dealt with us and where we were headed,” Oakland guard Robert Gallery told reporters.

“It’s definitely a step back from what we’ve done going forward the last year or two.”

(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by John O’Brien)

The Oakland Raiders cut ties with coach Tom Cable on Tuesday, announcing in a news release that they won’t pick up the two-year option on his contract.

Cable was two days removed from completing his second full season as the Raiders coach and guiding them to an 8-8 record, their best in eight seasons.

A phone call to Cable was not returned. He posted a 17-27 record during his two-plus seasons as the Raiders coach

Raiders managing general partner Al Davis had until Jan. 17 to decide whether to exercise the two-year, $5 million option on Cable’s contract.

That Davis dumped Cable so soon portends his desire to head off other teams from making a play for offensive coordinator Hue Jackson or, perhaps, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh.

The Raiders on Tuesday morning granted the 49ers permission to interview Jackson for their coaching vacancy.

The news of Cable’s ouster didn’t sit well with Raiders players.

“It was obviously a huge surprise with the progress we made from last year to this year, but I guess the owner made a decision for his reasons,” left guard Robert Gallery said. “Our locker room is definitely behind Coach Cable.

“This is going to hit 99 percent of the locker room really hard because people respected how he dealt with us and where we were headed. It’s definitely a step back from what we’ve done going forward the last year or two.”

Punter Shane Lechler, one of the two most-tenured Raiders, said he is “in shock” over Cable’s firing and “extremely disappointed. This is a huge letdown.”

Lechler was one of many players pointed in their support of Cable remaining as the Raiders coach. He said Davis’ decision to part ways with Cable will have ramifications on the team’s attempt to re-sign some of its 27 prospective free agents.

“I’ve already had a couple of players call me and say, ’What’s going on? We thought he was going to be back,’ ” Lechler said. “What it does is it’s going to influence a lot of guys’ decision on free agency. & You’re going to lose Michael Bush now, for sure. You’re going to lose a bunch of guys that are great football players, and just because of this move.”

Cable was the Raiders offensive line coach in 2007 before taking over for the fired Lane Kiffin on an interim basis four games into the 2008 season. The Raiders delivered the news that Cable was out only minutes after he completed an interview with NFL Sirius Radio in which he talked about his desire to return to the Raiders.

“It’s out of my hands,” Cable said in an interview with Sirius’ Brian McGovern and Marty Schottenheimer. “Make no mistake about it, I want to be head coach of the Oakland Raiders. If that’s not to be, by someone else’s decision, then I’ll be a head coach somewhere else. If not, I’ll coach the (offensive) line for somebody, and I can do that pretty darn good. But I want to be the head coach here.

“I just don’t have any control over it. We’ll see what the future holds and what becomes of it. If not, I’ve proved that I can be a head coach in this league and succeed and win. It’s not always easy, but it’s part of the deal & I’ve proven that I can handle it and get it done under some tough circumstances.”

It’s not a stretch to envision more teams seeking interviews with Jackson for the remarkable job he did this season in turning around Oakland’s listless offense. The Raiders scored 410 points this season, more than double the 197 they totaled in 2009. They finished second in the NFL in rushing, sixth in scoring and 10th in average yards per game.

The Oakland Raiders said they will not extend the contract of coach Tom Cable, who led the National Football League team to its best record in eight years.

Cable, 46, was told yesterday that his contract won’t be renewed, the Raiders said in a statement on their website last night. His deal expired at the conclusion of the regular season. The team gave no information on a successor.

Cable took charge of the Raiders when Lane Kiffin was fired in 2008. The team’s fifth coach in six years, Cable went 17-27 and guided Oakland to an 8-8 mark this season, its best since 2002, when it reached the Super Bowl after going 11-5. Cable was offensive line coach from 2007 until Sept. 30, 2008, when he was named interim head coach.

Cable was involved in an incident at the team’s training camp hotel in Napa, California, on Aug. 5, 2009, that left one of his assistants with a broken jaw. Defensive assistant Randy Hanson told Yahoo Sports he suffered the injury when Cable threw him out of a chair during a meeting with other coaches and then threatened to kill him.

A review of police reports, medical records and witness interviews by Napa County District Attorney Gary Lieberstein concluded that there were no blows or punches thrown and that Cable didn’t make any verbal threats toward Hanson. No criminal charges were filed against Cable.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Oakland Raiders informed coach Tom Cable on Tuesday that they will not bring him back as coach next season even though he led them to their best record in eight years this season.

The Raiders announced their decision not to exercise a two-year, $5 million option on Cable’s contract for 2011 and 2012, two days after wrapping up an 8-8 season that gave Oakland its first non-losing record since winning the 2002 AFC championship.

Tom Cable will not return as Oakland’s head coach. (AP Photo)

“Coach Cable was informed the club would not be exercising its option for the 2011 season, and that he’s free to seek employment elsewhere,” his agent, Don Yee, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “Teams already have shown interest in Tom.”

The Raiders now begin their search for their sixth coach since Jon Gruden left for Tampa Bay following the 2001 season. Cable lasted longer than any of the previous five, with a 17-27 record since being promoted from offensive line coach to interim head coach early in the 2008 season after Lane Kiffin was fired.

Cable had wide support from his players, who credited him with helping make the team a contender in the AFC West this season after a run of seven straight years of at least 11 losses.

But that was not enough to persuade owner Al Davis to bring him back for a third full season. The Raiders could have waited two weeks to make this decision but acted quickly.

The move comes the same day the Raiders granted the San Francisco 49ers permission to interview offensive coordinator Hue Jackson for their vacant head coaching job.

Davis brought Jackson in after last season to take over the play-calling duties from Cable. Led by a breakout season from running back Darren McFadden and big plays from rookie receiver Jacoby Ford, the Raiders finished sixth in the league in scoring with 410 points. That was the sixth-most points scored in a season in franchise history and more than doubled last year’s scoring output.

Jackson will likely be a leading contender for the job. Raiders senior executive John Herrera says the team has not talked to any candidates yet.

The Raiders also could have interest in Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, who was a quarterbacks coach in Oakland from 2002-03 and is close with Davis. Harbaugh is also being sought by the San Francisco 49ers, among other NFL teams.

Cable has had a tenuous hold on the job ever since getting it when Kiffin was fired four games into the 2008 season. The Raiders took a month after that season before deciding to give Cable a two-year contract and then left the coach in limbo for weeks after last season.

The 2009 season was marred by an investigation into whether he assaulted assistant Randy Hanson and allegations of a history of violence toward women.

The Raiders made big strides to improve under Cable but fell short of making the postseason for an eighth straight season. Oakland became the first team since the 1970 merger to win all of its division games and not make the playoffs.

The Raiders went just 2-8 outside the AFC West this season, with five of those losses coming to teams with losing records.

This season was marked by indecision at quarterback. The Raiders acquired Jason Campbell in the offseason from Washington to replace draft bust JaMarcus Russell. Davis compared Campbell in training camp to two-time Super Bowl winner Jim Plunkett, but Campbell was benched after just six quarters.

Campbell got the job back when Bruce Gradkowski injured his shoulder and eventually won three straight games to put the Raiders in first place in November. But he was benched again after a blowout loss at Pittsburgh.

The Raiders lost the following week at home to Miami when Gradkowski re-injured his shoulder. Campbell started the final four games.

— The Associated Press

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Oakland Raiders informed coach Tom Cable on Tuesday that they will not bring him back as coach next season even though he led them to their best record in eight years this season.

The Raiders announced their decision not to exercise a two-year, $5 million option on Cable’s contract for 2011 and ’12, two days after wrapping up an 8-8 season that gave Oakland its first non-losing record since winning the 2002 AFC championship.

“Coach Cable was informed the club would not be exercising its option for the 2011 season, and that he’s free to seek employment elsewhere,” his agent, Don Yee, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “Teams already have shown interest in Tom.”

The Raiders now begin their search for their sixth coach since Jon Gruden left for Tampa Bay following the 2001 season. Cable lasted longer than any of the previous five, with a 17-27 record since being promoted from offensive line coach to interim head coach early in the 2008 season after Lane Kiffin was fired.

Cable had wide support from his players, who credited him with helping make the team a contender in the AFC West this season after a run of seven straight years of at least 11 losses.

But that was not enough to persuade owner Al Davis to bring him back for a third full season. The Raiders could have waited two weeks to make this decision but acted quickly.

The move comes the same day the Raiders granted the San Francisco 49ers permission to interview offensive coordinator Hue Jackson for their vacant head coaching job.

Davis brought Jackson in after last season to take over the play-calling duties from Cable. Led by a breakout season from running back Darren McFadden and big plays from rookie receiver Jacoby Ford, the Raiders finished sixth in the league in scoring with 410 points. That was the sixth-most points scored in a season in franchise history and more than doubled last year’s scoring output.

Jackson will likely be a leading contender for the job. Raiders senior executive John Herrera says the team has not talked to any candidates yet.

The Raiders also could have interest in Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, who was a quarterbacks coach in Oakland from 2002-03 and is close with Davis. Harbaugh is also being sought by the 49ers, among other NFL teams.

Cable has had a tenuous hold on the job ever since getting it when Kiffin was fired four games into the 2008 season. The Raiders took a month after that season before deciding to give Cable a two-year contract and then left the coach in limbo for weeks after last season.

The 2009 season was marred by an investigation into whether he assaulted assistant Randy Hanson and allegations of a history of violence toward women.

The Raiders made big strides to improve under Cable but fell short of making the postseason for an eighth straight season. Oakland became the first team since the 1970 merger to win all of its division games and not make the playoffs.

The Raiders went just 2-8 outside the AFC West this season, with five of those losses coming to teams with losing records.

This season was marked by indecision at quarterback. The Raiders acquired Jason Campbell in the offseason from Washington to replace draft bust JaMarcus Russell. Davis compared Campbell in training camp to two-time Super Bowl winner Jim Plunkett, but Campbell was benched after just six quarters.

Campbell got the job back when Bruce Gradkowski injured his shoulder and eventually won three straight games to put the Raiders in first place in November. But he was benched again after a blowout loss at Pittsburgh.

The Raiders lost the following week at home to Miami when Gradkowski re-injured his shoulder. Campbell started the final four games.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

Tom Cable is unlikely to return as Oakland Raiders coach, Adam Schefter of ESPN has reported.

Oakland if 7-8 this season under Cable, who would like to remain in Oakland next season. The Raiders were in playoff contention, but shaky quarterback play and four losses in six games dropped them out of the picture.

Cable came on as interim coach when Lane Kiffin was fired in the 2008 season and was named permanent coach in Feb. 2009.

By Steve Corkran
Oakland Tribune

Raiders managing general partner Al Davis has yet to weigh in on whether he intends to bring back coach Tom Cable for a fourth season. It would be an easy call for Davis if he based it on player sentiment.

The handful of players interviewed Monday unanimously voiced support for the coach who has guided the Raiders to a 7-8 record this season, the most victories for an Oakland team since 2002.

“It would be a huge setback” if Cable isn’t brought back, punter Shane Lechler said. “We’ve invested so much of our time and there’s been so much commitment starting from the day he took over. Not only this year. He had a plan. The plan is working.

“It would be a terrible disappointment if there was a change, because he’s the guy for this job. This job is for a blue-collar, hard-nosed coach. That’s what we need.”

Lechler speaks from experience. He has played for six coaches and lived through five coaching changes since he joined the Raiders in 2000 out of Texas A&M.

New coaches promise change, Lechler said, without any guarantees. The Raiders know what they have in Cable, and it’s worth building upon.

“You can’t have a flashy guy come in,” Lechler said. “I’ve heard it too many times. Every coach comes in, ‘Oh, I’m going to fix this. I’m going to turn this thing around.’ (B.S.). You can’t say that every time, because people start calling your bluff.”

The Raiders went 4-8 under Cable in 2008, when he replaced the fired Lane

Kiffin four games into the season. They posted a 5-11 mark last season and already have won two more games than they did in any of the previous seven seasons.

The Raiders hold an option on Cable’s contract. Davis has a short window once the season ends to exercise that option. If he lets that time period pass, Cable is free to seek employment elsewhere.

“I got no problem with Cabes,” defensive tackle Tommy Kelly said. “Cabes is a good coach. “… He a straight shooter. Every year he’s been the coach, we’ve done a little better, so you can see progress. It’s just that everything depends on (Davis). How he sees it through his own eyes, nobody knows that. Al D., he knows who he wants and he’s going to bring back who he wants.”

Cable said he isn’t worried about his job security right now. That time will come after the Raiders’ season ends Sunday in Kansas City.

“I haven’t even thought about it yet because of what we’ve been trying to do here in the last month,” Cable said. “It’s really been probably the furthest thing from my mind. As we get done with the season, we’ll have a two- or three-week period there when it will be time for all that.”

Just the same, Cable said, he is confident that what he has accomplished with the Raiders speaks for itself. A meeting with Davis will take place soon after the season ends.

“I’m good at what I do,” Cable said. “So, I’m going to coach football. That’s just what I do. In terms of being here and all that, I know that I want to coach this football team. But that’s for after the season, in terms of how it’s discussed and when it’s discussed.”

• Pro Bowl selections will be announced today (NFL Network, 4 p.m.), and several Raiders are in contention for spots on the team. Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha led the fan portion of the voting process and is expected to earn his third straight selection. Lechler is a strong candidate to receive his fourth straight selection, and sixth overall. Other legitimate candidates include kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who has a league-high 135 points; running back Darren McFadden, who is fourth in the league in combined yards rushing and receiving (1,664); Kelly, who leads AFC defensive tackles in sacks (7): Jacoby Ford, who has returned three kickoffs for touchdown; and special teams player Rock Cartwright. Asomugha, Lechler and long-snapper Jon Condo were the Raiders representatives last season.
• Janikowski set a franchise record for most points scored in a season (135) with the 14 he scored against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. He had four field goals and two extra points in the 31-26 loss. He broke the mark set by kicker Jeff Jaeger (132) in 1993. Janikowski’s previous best was 128 (2002).
• The Raiders are 76 yards shy of setting the franchise record for penalty yards in a season. They are at a league-high 1,199 through 15 games. The 1969 Raiders amassed 1,274 penalty yards in a 14-game season. The Raiders are seventh in league history for yards penalized in one season. The Chiefs set the mark in 1998, when they racked up 1,304 penalty yards. In a strange twist, Oakland’s opponents have committed 1,122 yards worth of penalties against the Raiders. That figure is 108 yards higher than the Tennessee Titans’ runner-up total.

  SUNdAY’S game
  

  Raiders (7-8) at Kansas City (10-5),
  10 a.m., CBS

Raiders managing general partner Al Davis has yet to weigh in on whether he intends to bring back coach Tom Cable for a fourth season. It would be an easy call for Davis if he based it on player sentiment.

The handful of players interviewed Monday unanimously voiced support for the coach who has guided the Raiders to a 7-8 record this season, the most victories for an Oakland team since 2002.

“It would be a huge setback” if Cable isn’t brought back, punter Shane Lechler said. “We’ve invested so much of our time and there’s been so much commitment starting from the day he took over. Not only this year. He had a plan. The plan is working.

“It would be a terrible disappointment if there was a change, because he’s the guy for this job. This job is for a blue-collar, hard-nosed coach. That’s what we need.”

Lechler speaks from experience. He has played for six coaches and lived through five coaching changes since he joined the Raiders in 2000 out of Texas A&M.

New coaches promise change, Lechler said, without any guarantees. The Raiders know what they have in Cable, and it’s worth building upon.

“You can’t have a flashy guy come in,” Lechler said. “I’ve heard it too many times. Every coach comes in, ‘Oh, I’m going to fix this. I’m going to turn this thing around.’ (B.S.). You can’t say that every time, because people start calling your bluff.”

The Raiders went 4-8 under Cable in 2008, when he replaced the fired Lane

Kiffin four games into the season. They posted a 5-11 mark last season and already have won two more games than they did in any of the previous seven seasons.

The Raiders hold an option on Cable’s contract. Davis has a short window once the season ends to exercise that option. If he lets that time period pass, Cable is free to seek employment elsewhere.

“I got no problem with Cabes,” defensive tackle Tommy Kelly said. “Cabes is a good coach. “… He a straight shooter. Every year he’s been the coach, we’ve done a little better, so you can see progress. It’s just that everything depends on (Davis). How he sees it through his own eyes, nobody knows that. Al D., he knows who he wants and he’s going to bring back who he wants.”

Cable said he isn’t worried about his job security right now. That time will come after the Raiders’ season ends Sunday in Kansas City.

“I haven’t even thought about it yet because of what we’ve been trying to do here in the last month,” Cable said. “It’s really been probably the furthest thing from my mind. As we get done with the season, we’ll have a two- or three-week period there when it will be time for all that.”

Just the same, Cable said, he is confident that what he has accomplished with the Raiders speaks for itself. A meeting with Davis will take place soon after the season ends.

“I’m good at what I do,” Cable said. “So, I’m going to coach football. That’s just what I do. In terms of being here and all that, I know that I want to coach this football team. But that’s for after the season, in terms of how it’s discussed and when it’s discussed.”

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) – Now that their playoff hopes are officially extinguished, the Oakland Raiders are left looking to achieve much smaller goals.

A season-ending victory in Kansas City on Sunday would end a streak of seven straight losing seasons and give Oakland (7-8) its first perfect record in the AFC West since 1976. Those are just consolation prizes now for a team that believed it was good enough to win the division.

“Our goal was to go to the playoffs and give ourselves a shot to move on from there,” offensive lineman Robert Gallery said. “It’s a step forward from where we’ve been in the past but I don’t think anybody feels good about where we’re at right now.”

The Raiders will be left out of the playoffs once again, having been eliminated by Kansas City’s 34-14 victory Sunday that wrapped up early in the first quarter of Oakland’s home finale.

The Raiders went on to lose 31-26 to Indianapolis, ending any chance at a winning season.

So instead of having a playoff showdown against the Chiefs (10-5) in Kansas City, the Raiders will end the season with essentially a meaningless game. A win would give the Raiders series sweeps against division rivals San Diego, Denver and Kansas City and make Oakland the first team since the start of division play to win every division game and not finish first.

“It would be nice go in there and try to give them their first home loss and all that, sweep the division,” defensive lineman Tommy Kelly said. “It’s kind of hollow but, we achieved a goal but we didn’t get the ultimate goal. So that’s still kind of hard to swallow right there.”

There were many signs of progress this season for the Raiders, who had their most wins since winning the AFC championship in 2002. The offense improved by leaps under new coordinator Hue Jackson and quarterback Jason Campbell. Oakland has scored 379 points already this season, the eighth most ever by the franchise and most since 2002.

Darren McFadden has emerged as the big-play back the Raiders expected when they picked him fourth overall in 2008, with 1,157 yards rushing, 47 catches and 10 touchdowns.

Oakland has gotten big contributions from a rookie class that includes two defensive starters in middle linebacker Rolando McClain and defensive lineman Lamarr Houston, starting left tackle Jared Veldheer, and game-breaking receiver-returner Jacoby Ford, who has returned three kicks for touchdowns.

The Raiders lost only three games by double figures all season, a stark difference from a year ago, when they lost five games by at least 20 points and two others by more than 10.

Some of those close losses still haunt the Raiders, who lost 24-23 at Arizona when Sebastian Janikowski missed a 32-yard field goal, had chances late against Houston and San Francisco and gave up the winning score in Jacksonville with 1:34 remaining.

“We’re really close,” linebacker Quentin Groves said. “You look at the San Fran game, you look at the Arizona game, we could have easily had two wins right there. You look at the Jacksonville game, that’s another big win we could have had. So, we’re right there on the threshold of being a great team and a team to be reckoned with in this league.”

There is still uncertainty whether coach Tom Cable will be back for a third full season. His contract is up next month, although the Raiders hold an option to bring him back in 2011.

Sunday’s game will be Cable’s 44th since taking over for the fired Lane Kiffin on an interim basis in 2008, a mark only two coaches have reached since Tom Flores moved to the front office after the 1987 season. But he’s still looking for his first playoff berth.

“It’s a process to get there,” he said. “This week is just the last step for this year, and that is to go out and win a game and finish the season 8-8, stop the losing record thing that has kind of been chasing this organization for a number of years as well as complete the sweep in the division. I think that would be a heck of a deal for our football team and launch us into the future and the next year.”

The Raiders went 4-8 with Cable as an interim coach in 2008, then were 5-11 last season, when JaMarcus Russell’s struggles at quarterback held the franchise back. Oakland followed that up with at least seven wins this season.

Punter Shane Lechler, one of the last ties to Oakland’s division championship teams in 2000-02, said it would be a “huge setback” if Cable does not return.

“We’ve invested so much of our time and there’s been so much commitment starting from the day he took over. Not only this year,” Lechler said. “He had a plan. The plan is working. It would be a terrible disappointment if there was a change because he’s the guy for this job.”

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator Hue Jackson laughed at a report that said there is a rift between him and head coach Tom Cable.

Talking to reporters on Thursday for the first time since Oakland’s 38-31 loss to Jacksonville last week, Jackson denied there were any problems between the two coaches. He said he’s more focused on getting the Raiders back on a winning streak than positioning himself for a head coaching job.

Jackson laughed out loud when asked about the Yahoo! Sports story that said, among other things, that Cable was upset when Jackson was hired as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator and that Jackson’s associates are pushing him to find another job.

“I don’t know where all that stuff comes from,” Jackson said. “We all here have a pretty good working relationship. I have known Tom here longer than probably anybody that’s on this staff, other than Mike Waufle because I worked with those guys before. I was a little surprised by it. There’s no truth to it.”

Jackson echoed comments made earlier this week by Cable, who also denied the report and said the two men laughed about it while preparing their game plan for Sunday’s game against Denver.

“It’s amazing how things get out there like that,” Jackson said. “One thing I do know is that we’re here and we’re going to do everything we can to win football games. Myself, Tom, our whole staff, that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to become the best staff in the league and we’re trying to become the best team in the league. And that’s a work in progress.”

Cable took over the playcalling midway through the 2008 season but relinquished the duties when Jackson was brought aboard in January. After a slow start, the Raiders are ranked 14th in total offense and 10th in points scored heading into Sunday’s game.

Jackson described the relationship between him and Cable as being no different from other head coaches and offensive coordinators. The two men previously worked together in 1990 at Cal State-Fullerton and again in ’96 at California.

“Maybe it’s a little bit different because we have a prior relationship,” Jackson said. “My relationship with him has never been one of, I can’t go to him or he doesn’t come to me, or he doesn’t bounce things off of me or I don’t bounce things off of him. We talk all the time.”

Notes: Middle linebacker Rolando McClain (tendinitis) did not practice, though Cable said he is improving. McClain did not play in the loss to Jacksonville. … Quarterback Kyle Boller (quad) was limited but it’s not expected to prevent him from playing if needed.

— The Associated Press