Well Browns fans, so you hired Rob Ryan away from us "lowly old Raiders" and feel like you are getting a steal. While other Raider fans are talking smack I thought I would inform you on a few misconceptions about the tenure of Rob Ryan defense.

2004 - The Raiders sign Rob Ryan to bring the 3-4 into Oakland signing ancient NT Ted Washington to team with ancient Bobby Hamilton and then go out and sign.... Warren Sapp. Well we all know Al was into his screw Chucky mode back then and overpaid for a guy who never finished a season in 4 with the Raiders. With terrible DE's trying to be OLB, the 3-4 lasts about 11 games and the Raiders end up near the bottom of the barrell in total and run defense.

2005 - Infused with Pro Bowl DE Derrick Burgess, Washington, Sapp, rookie LB Kirk Morrison, CBs Charles Woodson and Nnamdi Asomugha(not quite where he is now), the Raiders have their "best" defense under Ryan and it still falls near the bottom of the league, especially against the run.

2006 - I know you Browns fans see that #3 overall and #1 pass ranking as a sign that Ryan can do something but that ranking is about as solid as an Art Modell's word. Here's an article if you don't believe me, http://www.ibabuzz.com/raidersblog/2006/10...not-even-close/ The Raiders did give up the 3rd least amount of yards in the NFL but it was because teams would score about 17 points and coast from there due to the worst offense in NFL history.

2007 - A touchdown a game improvement on offense doesn't stop the Raiders from going 4-12 because the other offenses actually had to try. Btw, if you want to look at how his defense does in crunch time, look no further than the game where an offense belonging to a certain Ohio team, marched down with about a minute left due to the soft prevent, got Kiffin'd by a timeout and had the second kick blocked to let the Raiders win. After the year, Kiffin wants to fire Ryan, even telling him he's gone so he can bring in his dad. Wow, I'm sure glad Al blocked that move.

2008 - Gave up 40 points a few times, 30 a few more but played well in some games later on, Raiders won 3 of their last 6. Actually used some Tampa 2 against the Texans in nearly blanking Johnson (and gave up 150 yards to the 2 TEs).

In Rob's defense, he has been saddled with the Old Man's dictatoring since day one. Signing Sad-Sapp was moronic and giving him all world 3-4 OLBs Tyler Brayton, Akbar Gbajiwhatever, Grant Irons didn't help his cause and from then on being about one LBer short of a picnic never helped his cause but he never came close to improving anything and always had bad run defenses, despite what 06 says. BTW, Ryan was the third choice for DC in 04 behind Mangenius, and Rex Ryan.

IMHO you will get a great rah-rah guy who's probably going to fall in somewhere between a John Fox (good) and a Willie Shaw/Chuck Bresnahan (bad) in terms of a DC after they left Oakland. He like everyone has been saddled by Al Davis's shennanigans but he never, ever did anything but do what Al wanted which garnered him alot of dislike from the fans. Until he shows otherwise, He's all bark and no bite.