Daily Madden: Did The Raiders Miss Out On A Harbaugh Deal?
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - With Jim Harbaugh gone from the 49ers, there are now two NFL coaching openings in the Bay Area. The Raiders job has been open since Dennis Allen was fired a few weeks into the season.
"They've had a long time to think about it -- how are we going to get better and who is going to make us better," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. "I would think that they better have the answers by now."
Did the plan include reaching out to Jim Harbaugh?
"I don't know that, but I would expect that if they didn't do it, they were going to do it," Madden said.
Harbaugh has reportedly accepted the head coaching position at the University of Michigan.
"I don't know that anyone thought that it was going to happen this quickly, when really it was kind of announced even before the last game. And they still have rules in the NFL with tampering and so on. So I don't know that (the Raiders) could have reached out directly. Now indirectly, agents do a lot of stuff and there could have been something. I would say that the Raiders definitely had a plan that included Jim Harbaugh as coach of the Raiders... This isn't inside information. I'm not part of that, so I don't know. But I know that if you wanted to get the best and want a winner, you're going to go after Harbaugh." (6:35)
Reports have since surfaced that the former 49er coach rejected an offer from Oakland, with FOX Sports claiming he was the Silver & Black's top choice to become the new coach after Dennis Allen was fired earlier this season.
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