Raiders Must Pay Shanahan While He Coaches in Denver

It turns out that the Raiders aren’t the only ones going back to their roots.

The Denver Broncos rehired Mike Shanahan as quarterback coach Monday.

The Raiders may have to pick up most of the tab, too. The Broncos say they’ll pay Shanahan a minimum salary, with the Raiders obliged to pay the rest of Shanahan’s estimated $325,000 contract, which runs through the 1990 season.

Shanahan, asked Monday if he’d be working for nothing from the Broncos, said, “Basically, yes.”

Shanahan, fired three weeks ago as Raider head coach, was the Broncos’ offensive coordinator for three seasons before Al Davis hired him in February, 1988.

Shanahan made no comment after his firing, releasing a statement to the news services and closeting himself to avoid saying anything bitter about the Raiders, according to friends.

“I’m not going to get into my last situation,” Shanahan said Monday at a Denver news conference.

“I want to talk about the present because this is the thing that’s important to me now, chemistry. I think it’s important in any organization, people playing together, people working together. That’s why we’re 5-1 now, because of that chemistry.”

Was going to the Raiders a mistake?

“I think you always take a look,” he said. “The Raiders are a fine organization. I’ve got no regrets. At the same time, it wasn’t the right situation for me.”

Did he think Davis had done his homework before hiring him?

“You’ve got to ask Al Davis,” he said. “Once I get started on that, I could talk for days and weeks and I don’t think that’s important. The Raiders have a fine organization but it just wasn’t the right situation for me.”

The day Shanahan was fired, Bronco Coach Dan Reeves offered publicly to take him back. Reeves has a perfect task for him, too: fixing John Elway’s game.

Shanahan went to Denver the first time as quarterback coach, arriving after Elway’s disastrous rookie season. He and Elway had a warm relationship and their time together coincided with Elway’s rise to the top ranks of pro quarterbacks.

Reeves and Elway, in contrast, reportedly have a tenuous connection. With Shanahan gone last season, Elway dropped to No. 22 in the passing ratings.

His struggles have continued this season, despite the Broncos’ fast start. He went into last weekend as the No. 25-rated passer in the league.

The Raiders’ No. 1 quarterback?

“Jay Schroeder’s our starting quarterback,” Coach Art Shell said Monday.

Shell hooked Schroeder in the third period Sunday, with the Raiders leading, 13-7, and afterward said he and the staff would decide who will start at Philadelphia.

“There wasn’t any need (for a meeting),” Shell said. “I thought about it at home. . . . I thought about it this morning driving to work.

“When I reached the decision (to play Steve Beuerlein) on the sideline, I felt at the time we needed some kind of lift. We were doing OK, but maybe bringing Steve in might kind of change it for us. Jay understands that. He understands he’s the starting quarterback.”

Can switching undermine a No. 1’s confidence?

“Oh, I hope not,” Shell said. “Jay’s been around long enough to understand that. It’s not that I don’t have confidence in him. I have total confidence in him, but I have the same amount of confidence in Steve Beuerlein because I think he’s capable of moving the team, too.

“But Jay’s our starting quarterback. I told him that, but I also told him, sometimes if things aren’t happening, you have to make a decision to move elsewhere.”

The first phase of the season, during which the Raiders played only one team that had a winning record, is over.

Now they climb aboard the tiger: at Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, at San Diego, at Houston.

Shell, asked if the Raiders can challenge the Eagles, noted, “We’re a pretty good football team, ourselves.”

Shell has victories over the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs. Does he see himself rebuilding, or already at the helm of a contender?

He’s eager to find out himself.

“I can’t see that far,” Shell said. “I can’t see any farther than the Philadelphia Eagles. I don’t want to predict what we have here. What we have here is a bunch of football players who are beginning to really have fun and really believe in themselves.

“There’s no telling what could happen. I don’t want to predict where we’re going. All I know is we’re headed in the direction of playing winning football again. That’s all I’m concerned about. Everything else will take care of itself.”

Raider Notes

With the trade deadline 1 p.m. today, Art Shell conceded that the Raiders have some interest in suspended San Francisco 49er cornerback Tim McKyer. “I think you have to be interested in a guy like that,” Shell said. General Manager John McVay of the 49ers told Bay Area writers that he and Al Davis last talked Saturday but that the Raiders, although the most interested team, had not made a firm offer. The 49ers want a No. 2 pick. Raider cornerbacks Lionel Washington and Terry McDaniel are playing well, however, so Davis may not feel like going that high.

Special commendation went to safety Eddie Anderson, who in two starts has two interceptions, a touchdown and Sunday caused one of the three fumbles the Raiders recovered with a jarring hit on Christian Okoye. “That reminded me so much of Jack Tatum,” Shell said. “It lifted the team another notch.” . . . Steve Beuerlein on the Raiders’ defense: “They had Christian Okoye running scared a little bit. They hit him a few times early. I think it made an impression on him.” Okoye went into the game with three consecutive 100-yard games, including 150 the week before at Seattle, and was held to 52.