Report: Allen offers OC job to Greg Knapp

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Al Saunders is the lone Raiders assistant still under contract, but the offensive coordinator was conspicuous by his absence from Monday's presser introducing Dennis Allen as Oakland's 18th head coach.There might have been a specific reason for Saunders' no-show.According to a report by FoxSports.com, Allen has offered the job to an old friend and a familiar face to Raiders fans in Greg Knapp, Houston's quarterbacks coach who was Oakland's offensive coordinator in 2007 and 2008 under Lane Kiffin but had his play-calling duties stripped from him by then-interim coach Tom Cable in '08.
But Tuesday morning, appearing on KNBR's "Murph and Mac Show," Allen would not corroborate the report."I'm not going to confirm anything on my staff right now," Allen said. "When the time's right."
Allen and Knapp worked together in Atlanta in 2004 and 2005, when Knapp was the Falcons' offensive coordinator. He has also been an O.C. with the 49ers (2001-03) and Seattle (2009).In his lone full season as the Raiders' O.C., Oakland finished 27th in total offense, 31st in passing but sixth in rushing. It was JaMarcus Russell's rookie season.Knapp was, however, praised for his work with Texans rookie QB T.J. Yates this past season after both Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart were lost with season-ending injuries and Houston won a playoff game over Cincinnati with Yates under center.Earlier in the day, Allen described the type of offense he wanted to employ, without saying who he wanted to employ as his offensive coordinator."We're going to be up-tempo," he said. "We want to be fast, we want to be aggressive. You'll hear me use that word a lot -- aggressiveness. And I think that's critical in the game of football. We want to be fast, we want to be up-tempo. We're going to be able to run the football and run the football solidly so we can stay ahead of the chains on first and second down. And we're going to be explosive in the passing game."We've got those weapons in place to be able to do that, and that's what were going to do."Knapp, 48, played quarterback at Sacramento State. Saunders spent last week scouting the Senior Bowl for the Raiders in Mobile, Ala.

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