PRO FOOTBALL ’87 : COACHES, PLAYERS, TEAMS AND TRENDS TO WATCH THIS SEASON : RAIDERS : Trying to Rebuild on the Run, They Look for a Quick Start

All eyes are on Al Davis, this vision in white with the shades and the rockabilly hairdo, standing mysteriously alone on the sideline, plotting a return to the estate he so favors that everyone in the organization is instructed to mention it in all public statements:

“The greatness of the Raiders.”

Ooh, he picked a tough one this time.

Difficulty notwithstanding, when has anyone seen him in a better mood? During practices at Oxnard, he jokes and banters with reporters, who have gone months without hearing the sound of his voice.

Why not? First he steals Bo Jackson right from under the noses of 27 competitors. After a month of holding his sides and laughing about that one, he settles the Coliseum Commission’s hash, approving a move to a nearby community, which gives him $10 million for nothing more than holding a press conference to announce it, well above the actual cost.

Not only that, he has millions of dollars of new receivers prancing around the lot; thousands of pounds of new linemen shaking the earth; old Raiders squirming in the night lest they find their names on the list of the outward bound. Can the new Raider Age be far behind?

Well, yes.

Sports Illustrated picks them fourth in the AFC West, and there are only five spots.

It could happen, too. The quarterback position has never looked shakier. The offensive line may have potential but has yet to approach it. The exhibition season has been what you might term, of concern. One of the matched pair of one-time superstar cornerbacks has just been obliged to open the season on injured reserve. You bet your greatness it could happen.

A.D.

Last season was a great disappointment. We were 8-4 and let our entire football season slip away in the last four games. We might not have had the best team in football and that’s my fault because we have to have the best personnel. But we were good enough to be there and we weren’t. --AL DAVIS

Since people trying to explain what has happened to the Raiders keep getting stuck on that old saw--”They went Hollywood”--some review is in order.

First, there is the matter of Davis’ distractions. The house explanation is that he has been preoccupied by his many court fights, which is true enough, as far as it goes.

But did he need to indulge himself so fully in all of them? A Davis intimate says he had to go against his fellow owners in the USFL suit to protect his legal position in his own case against the NFL. But did he have to go the last mile, testifying, trying to arrange a settlement?

Davis, the personnel wizard, had a long, cold run. He seemed wedded to his prophecy after the 1984 Super Bowl: “I believe the greatness of this team is in its future.” He was loath to do anything dramatic at quarterback or on the offensive line. Opportunities came and went.

Jim Everett to the Rams? That astonished observers of the Rams and Raiders, alike. The Rams had always been super-cautious, the Raiders the ones to pounce.

The Raiders, in fact, were asked if they were interested. They loved Everett at draft time but didn’t like the Houston Oilers’ asking price: Howie Long.

What they failed to do was try to make another deal: how about this guy, that guy and two draft choices? Word leaked that Davis said that Marc Wilson looked as good coming into the league as Everett did. Of course, Wilson was up to seven years and no longer looked as shiny and new.

If quarterback was a thorny problem--good ones are rarely traded and, with everyone convinced the Raiders had to deal, Davis probably felt that everyone was trying to hold him up--he also let his offensive line get old. It aged visibly in the three seasons after the 1984 Super Bowl but none of the top five picks in the next three drafts went for an offensive lineman.

Coincidentally, mad-dog blitzing became the new vogue on defense.

Voila! The Raider line sagged in 1984, rallied in Raiders-go-basic ‘85, then went down in ‘86, taking with it whatever quarterback happened to be standing behind it.

Well, everything goes in cycles. If you’re smart enough and lucky enough, you might be able to head off or cut short your down cycles. The one the Raiders are in, however, has swung dangerously low.

Back in the game in a big way, Davis has added James Lofton, Mervyn Fernandez, Bo Jackson, Brian Holloway, Lionel Washington, Chris Woods, John Clay, Bruce Wilkerson and Steve Smith since the end of last season. The cost of the entire package was negligible, except for the cash involved and that, as we’ve seen, is a renewable resource.

Now we’re about to see how lucky Davis is this time around.

RUSTY AND RE-DESIGN

As always, no hint of the Raiders’ concern about their quarterback is made public, although one leaked out a couple of days ago when Flores, talking of the Green Bay Packers, said:, “They’re having quarterback problems, themselves, obviously.”

The Raiders have arrived at the 25-year-old Hilger after having missed connections in recent years, one way or another, with most of the game’s luminaries, real or once-real: John Elway, Jim Everett, Ron Jaworski, Jim Kelly, Neil Lomax, Vinny Testaverde and Doug Williams.

Hilger has ability and unquenched optimism, not to mention massive inexperience. He says he’s learning things every time out but if Elway’s example means anything, the gestation period for even a superstar quarterback is measured more in years than weeks.

The Raiders talked of making things easy for Hilger but in exhibitions, they didn’t, succumbing to the old urge to throw deep--and put Hilger in a hole if it didn’t hit--every time they saw a cornerback man-to-man on one of their wide receivers.

Take the Dallas Cowboys exhibition, in which the first two possessions went:

1st down--Long pass, incomplete.

2nd down--Marcus Allen run, 3-4 yards.

3rd down--Try to hit Todd Christensen for the first down.

The next thing you know, your quarterback finishes the exhibition season at 39.1% with 1 touchdown pass, 5 interceptions and the playing roster taking bets on when Wilson returns.

Two seasons ago, with Jim Plunkett hurt, the Raiders did make it easy for Wilson, abandoning Raider Ball to pound away with Allen. Of course, as the playoffs neared, Wilson was instructed to start going deep again and interceptions piled up.

Raider Ball, which obliges the quarterback to hold the ball longer, has had two recent problems:

--It assumes physical superiority, especially on the offensive line, which has been absent.

--It has yet to prove it can withstand the onslaught of the new, attacking defenses in this era when the best thing that the best teams do is squash quarterbacks.

The 1984 game at Chicago, in which the Bears recorded nine sacks and KO’d both Raider quarterbacks, stands as a landmark. The Raiders haven’t been able to demonstrate since then that they can still make it work their way. If several more quarterbacks get carried out trying this season, will they finally get someone who can install a short-pass attack as, say, the Rams did?

HEISMAN II

Even at the most settled positions, uncertainty reigns. There has been no more valuable Raider than Marcus Allen, but in the throes of last season’s plummet, there were rumbles about trading him for the rights to Testaverde.

On draft day, the Raiders seemed set to take Penn State tailback D.J. Dozier, but the Minnesota Vikings traded up and selected him one pick before. Minnesota officials later said that the Raiders had been shopping Allen. Perhaps Marcus had gotten into Davis’ face once too often?

Then Davis pulled his Bo Jackson coup. If he winds up with a full-time football player, which is the way everyone’s betting (which, with Bo, is meaningless), any inconvenience will be worthwhile, sinced it will give the Raiders an extra superstar to deal.

For this season, however, it seems to offer as much potential for disruption as anything else. Jackson’s arrival (it looks like the eighth game, Nov. 1 at New England, unless the Kansas City Royals heat up) will be a circus of columnists, mini-cams and questions about running in the same backfield with Allen.

Jackson has already been told he’ll be a backup this season and will get a limited number of carries. The Raider system uses one back primarily as a blocker, making a two-Heisman tandem improbable, but that isn’t expected to slow down the festivities.

Just for comparison’s sake, last season’s smaller-scale disruptions around Napoleon McCallum were tough enough. The strain told on the ultra-patient Flores, who grew snappish answering questions about it in training camp. McCallum, going back and forth between his ship and his team, was a useful, if unspectacular, replacement for the injured Allen, but he also had costly fumbles in the opening loss at Denver and the playoff-killing defeat by the Kansas City Chiefs in the Coliseum.

THE O.L. FOLLIES

It’s not that things might not work out on the offensive line It’s just that it’s rounding into shape slowly. (See first half of exhibition final against Bears.)

Of course, so many things happened.

At left tackle, the “short corner,” so important in pass blocking because there’s usually no tight end to help and the sack specialists line up opposite, the Raiders hoped No. 1 pick John Clay was precocious enough to beat out Bruce Davis.

Clay’s challenge, however, faded.

Davis had a few problems of his own.

Brian Holloway was acquired.

Suddenly, left tackle was spoken for, but a new man had to be found at right tackle, where Steve Wright, a journeyman who started three exhibitions, was suddenly cut.

And the new man is. . . .

Clay, who didn’t play a down there until the second half of the last exhibition.

This was nothing compared to right guard, the Bermuda Triangle of the line, where all who lined up, or were scheduled to line up, were hurt. In order, Curt Marsh, Mickey Marvin, Dean Miraldi and Bill Lewis went down. That made No. 2 draft pick Bruce Wilkerson, originally tabbed as a prospect who’d sit for a year, the starter Monday. He lasted all the way to Wednesday when Miraldi, who had been cut Monday, was re-signed and made No. 1. Maybe Wilkerson had a bad day off Tuesday.

Of course this isn’t the final version. Holloway isn’t expected to make the lineup for another week or two.

EXHIBITION II

This being the case, the Raiders are fortunate that their early schedule--at Green Bay, Detroit, at Houston, Kansas City--gives them another chance to pull everything together.

Here’s how to score it:

If the Raiders come through 4-0, you’ll know they have a chance to be something.

If 2-2, dig in.

If 3-1, stay loose but keep the shovel where you can find it.

DEFENSE

With all the breakdowns last season, it was No. 3 in the NFL, No. 1 in sacks and remains the hope of the Raiders.

The line compares with any. Howie Long, 27, has been to the last four Pro Bowls. Bill Pickel, 27, who stuffs the run and recorded 11.5 sacks, is widely considered the next monster nose tackle. Sean Jones, 24, led the AFC with 15.5 sacks. Greg Townsend, 25, had 11. The Raiders swear Bob Buczkowski, 23, will show he’s that good, too, as soon as he’s activated.

There is a question on defense, too, at the all-important corners. Lester Hayes, 32, the left-side institution, was told he’d have to go on injured reserve, his place taken by Lionel Washington.

Washington lost his starting job in St. Louis last season where the new coach, Gene Stallings, thought he didn’t play the run well enough. The Raiders don’t care if their corners ever tackle anyone as long as they can cover man-to-man and Washington comes well-advertised. New York Giants’ quarterback Phil Simms says he’s glad to see him out of the NFC East. Washington struggled in his first two exhibitions, played well against the Bears and became the new man.

On the right, as always, is Mike Haynes, 34. Idolized by his fellow players who voted him to the Pro Bowl for the ninth time last season, he’s had his own problems in recent years. Whether they were injury-related, or due to age is yet to be demonstrated.

If the corners hold, the defense should wreak havoc once more and anything is possible, including a return to the playoffs. Greatness seems to be a move or two down the line.