Shell Entertains High Hopes From Start : Raiders: Coach says they have makings of being outstanding. Denver to provide test today.

The Raiders, dateline still Los Angeles but please check back in an hour, are proud to call today’s opener against the Denver Broncos at the Coliseum a home opener, which is news in itself.

Raider fans, proceed to your seats as scheduled, as promised, but retain those ticket stubs for posterity.

The Raiders’ future on the field is nearly as unpredictable as their rumblings off it as they play their first season opener under Coach Art Shell, who by some accounts has recaptured the Raider essence of old. Shell was a Raider of old, so who would know better?

“This team has the makings of being an outstanding football team,” he said. “If these guys continue to play as hard as they are and have the fun that they’re having, we’re going to be a good football team. I expect to make the playoffs, yes.”

Shell won’t have to wait long for his first playoff-caliber test. Today’s opponents are the defending AFC champion Broncos who, Super Bowl blowouts aside, can provide an accurate gauge as to where a team stacks up against the league.

Quarterback John Elway, a three-time loser in games marked with Roman numerals, is a new man, insiders say, having purged some football demons last winter. After his team’s 45-point loss to San Francisco in the Super Bowl, Elway gathered the wife and kids and went to--no, not Disneyland, that was Joe Montana--Palm Springs. There, he enjoyed a long, contemplative respite, returning with fire in his eye.

Elway had his best training camp in memory, completing 70% of his passes. If the Super Bowl blues were getting him down, it wasn’t showing.

“We don’t have any psychological problems getting ready to play the season,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said. “Or playing division teams, or playing American Football Conference teams, the NFC or the regular season. Our problem comes when we get to the Super Bowl.”

The shame of today’s game, featuring original American Football League rivals, is that it opens the season instead of closing it. If this meeting ends up determining the AFC West title--and it could--who’s going to remember in 17 weeks?

Also, with the Raiders’ future in such doubt, the game also appears a colossal waste of gate opportunity. If it attracts 50,000, consider it a success in the context of the Raiders’ situation. Last year’s meeting drew 87,560 to the Coliseum.

Still, you get the feeling these rivals might play in the parking lot.

Eight of their last 12 games have turned on three points or fewer. Five have gone into overtime.

Last time around at the Coliseum, Jeff Jaeger’s 26-yard field goal in overtime gave the Raiders a 16-13 victory.

Denver is far from being at full strength, having spent the week trying to assemble a defensive line worthy of NFL competition. Right defensive end Alphonso Carreker was lost for the season when he tore knee ligaments in the team’s final exhibition. Left defensive end Ron Holmes signed Friday and was activated for today’s game, but he figures to play only as a substitute. Backup Andre Townsend was listed as doubtful all week with an ankle sprain.

As the weekend approached, Reeves was staring at a defensive end tandem of second-year man Warren Powers, who has a sprained ankle, and this year’s 10th-round choice, Jim Szymanski.

“We got a second-year guy starting at one end and a rookie starting at the other against a team that’s playing real well and challenges you up front,” Reeves said. “That’s not a good situation to be in.”

Not if you consider the way the Raiders’ offensive front (and backs) have bullied opponents of late. The team gained 527 net yards against the San Diego Chargers last week in the final exhibition, 267 on the ground.

Shell’s biggest problem might be having too much talent in the backfield for his own good. Last week, he outlined a complicated scheme for rotating his runners, a plan that conspicuously excluded Mr. Raider, Marcus Allen, whose Raider days could be numbered, and Bo Jackson, Mr. October (that’s when he reports).

The coach was not kind to those who tried prying into the inner workings of his Shell game.

“You’re trying to pin me down to say I’m going to use one guy,” he said. “I’m not going to do that. We’re going to use all those guys.”

That would be, in no particular order, unless your last name is Allen: Vance Mueller, Napoleon McCallum, Greg Bell, Steve Smith, and Allen.

“They all have a role to play,” Shell said. “They showed that the other day.”

That day would be a week ago Saturday against the Chargers, when McCallum rushed for 88 yards, Mueller 86, Bell 43, and Smith 21.

“I think they all did outstanding,” Shell said. “I don’t think our team has evolved to the point where we got to stick with one guy. I’ll take the situation we had last Saturday any day.”

Of course, that situation didn’t include Allen, who sat out the game with a strained hamstring, an injury that seemed perfectly healed in practice last week.

Lo and behold, the most stable position for the Raiders going into this game is quarterback, where Jay Schroeder gets the start while Steve Beuerlein counts the zeros in his new contract and watches, his summer holdout having cost him the starting job he earned at the end of 1989.

If Schroeder is eventually supplanted, he’ll go kicking and screaming.

“I feel real good about the situation,” he said. “There’s no question about it.”

Raider Notes

The Raiders lead the series, 39-18-2. . . . Denver Coach Dan Reeves said he’s in good health only one month after experiencing chest pains Aug. 8 that led to a surgical procedure called an atherectomy, in which a tube was inserted into Reeves’ chest arteries to remove a buildup of plaque. Reeves left the hospital on Aug. 10 and was cleared to return to the Broncos Aug. 13. “I’m having no problems,” he said. “I had a treadmill (test) done each week for the past four weeks, but starting next week, I’ll just go once every two weeks. So everything’s going along fine.”