Who will make Raiders' decisions?

ALAMEDA - It was a time-honored, and frequently uncomfortable, yearly ritual at Raiders headquarters: After the final game, the head coach would meet with team owner Al Davis for a detailed, hours-long breakdown of what went right or wrong. Sometimes it seeped across several days.

Hue Jackson just completed his first season as Raiders coach, and it left a lot to digest - a late-season collapse, another postseason absence, a defense that seemed to regress to unacceptable levels, a rash of penalties like no NFL team has perpetrated before, a lack of improvement over the 8-8 record of 2010.

Jackson figures he will have that postmortem sit-down soon. But in the post-Al world, it isn't entirely clear who will be in the room. Mark Davis, Al's heir apparent? A committee of Raiders administrators? A new general manager?

"I would love to meet with Mark. ... Whether it's Mark or front-office people or whoever wants to listen," Jackson said Monday at his final weekly news conference of the season. "I have a pretty good idea of where we need to go, and I think we're gonna go there. I know what Mark's vision is, which is to put the Raiders organization back among the elite. It's my vision."

Jackson said he and Mark Davis would likely meet this week.

In a building where coaches have shuttled in and out like nickel defensive backs, Jackson will almost certainly keep his job this offseason. But nearly everything around him is in flux. Defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan is on the hot seat after Sunday's 38-26 loss to San Diego, and Jackson didn't offer anything like a vote of confidence after the game.

"Obviously, I'm going to meet with everybody here soon, and we're going to go from there," Jackson said Monday.

More fundamental, no one knows who will be making major football decisions for the Raiders in the coming months. Al Davis oversaw everything from draft selections to stadium negotiations to basic defensive scheme, and his death has created a vacuum in the organization. Jackson deftly filled it during the season, orchestrating trades for quarterback Carson Palmer and linebacker Aaron Curry. But all signs now point to the hiring of a full-time GM.

Asked whether he would be part of Mark Davis' general manager search, Jackson sounded unsure - a rarity for this ultra-confident coach.

"Um, I think I will be," he said. "But how involved, I don't know that. I think he'll let me know that as we move forward."

Allowing Jackson to help choose a GM might be a conflict of interest anyway, since the new guy would presumably have control of hiring and firing the head coach. Jackson acknowledged that, but still made his pitch for an active role.

"Whatever Mark decides to do, I'm going to respect that, also," he said. "This is his football team. ... But I will want to be as involved as I can be, just because I think I'm in it. I'm in it deep. And I understand everything that's going on."

That's a bold statement, because these Raiders are difficult to understand at times. They set themselves up nicely for a playoff berth, surviving an injury to starting quarterback Jason Campbell to stand at 7-4 after 11 games. But they lost four of their final five games and allowed Denver, also 8-8, to win the AFC West.

The season finale was the low point. In a do-or-die game, the Oakland defense started the afternoon with an interception, then failed to stop the Chargers again for the rest of the game, unless you count a missed field goal from 44 yards.

"We got what we earned," Jackson said. "We're 8-8, we're a .500 football team for the second year in a row, and that's disappointing. But the guys that come back here, that get ready for the offseason program, they're going to buy in ... all the way to what it is that we're selling. Because we're going to win a championship here, and that's what I told them. And if you don't feel comfortable at the way I think you've got to buy in, then maybe this is not the right place for you."

A few hours before Jackson addressed the media, a smattering of players drifted in and out of the locker room as they began to clear out their belongings. Some declined interview requests; a few, including Palmer, saw the pack of reporters and retreated back to restricted space.

Those who spoke seemed only slightly less dazed by the Raiders' failure to secure a playoff berth than they had been the night before.

"Yeah, it's definitely tough to swallow," guard Cooper Carlisle said. "We didn't know how the exact scenario would play out, but it turns out if we win that game, we're preparing for Pittsburgh. Instead, I'm cleaning shoes out of the locker."

Yes, the Raiders had a lot to contend with this year, including Al Davis' death, Campbell's broken clavicle and the foot sprain that knocked out star halfback Darren McFadden for the final nine games. Despite all that, the Raiders were one game away from a postseason appearance, their closest brush since they won the AFC West in 2002. Just don't try to convince punter Shane Lechler it was a big accomplishment to get that far.

"Considering the team that won the division, no - to tell you the truth," said Lechler, along with kicker Sebastian Janikowski the only remnants from that 2002 team. "Yeah, we had a lot of things going here. But it's the Raiders, we always do."

You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.