I'm standing on the sideline in Napa during Raiders practice talking with a team official.  I  see a ballboy running around and replacing the ball as the team works on its two-minute drill.

Suddenly I realize: That's not a ballboy, It's the head coach!

Yeah , first-time head coach Lane Kiffin is 32 years old, but I'd be shocked if he doesn't get carded going into R-rated movies, because he looks about 16.

Kiffin was running around, keeping the tempo up at a spirited team practice on a cloudy, cool morning in wine country. He's the latest in a long line of coaches charged with bringing back "the greatness of the Raiders". That's a huge task.

Kiffin's the Raiders' fifth different head coach in the last seven seasons.  It's been four years since the Silver and Black appeared in the Super Bowl. In that span, the team is 15-49.

As the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons would say, "WORST. RECORD. EVER."

Maybe not ever, but certainly over the last four years.  

That 15-49 mark is worse than the Detroit Lions. Worse than the Arizona Cardinals.

Well, at least, it can't get any worse. But can it get any better?

How can it not?

With a defense that finished ranked third overall at the end of the season, all the Raiders need is just a little help from the offense.

JaMarcus Russell won't be providing that help anytime soon, as he and the Raiders still seem to be far apart on contract talks. And after watching the other QBs at camp, it's easy to see why Daunte Culpepper was brought in.

To be kind, let's just say that both Josh McCown and Andrew Walter ... uhh...well ... let's just say they struggled.

The hope is that Culpepper can pick up the offense quickly enough and that his knee is healthy enough after two surgeries for two different injuries to take over before Week 1.

Lamont Jordan has to be more durable than he has been since the Raiders paid him the big free-agent money to become "the man" rather than splitting time as he did with the Jets.

Robert Gallery has to prove he was worthy of being the No. 2 pick.

The thing is, these are all problems that Oakland knew it had regardless of who was hired to be the new head coach. They're Kiffin's problems now.

It's early in the process, not even a full week into training camp, so it's hard to judge whether or not those issues have been corrected. Heck, we won't truly know until games are being played.

But I will say that after watching the team at work, I saw nothing to convince me that they have been .... at least not yet.

Next Stop: Seattle