Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports recently reported that Raiders owner Al Davis has privately expressed regret over the moves that the team has made during the offseason.

Cole cites three unnamed sources who have had conversations with Davis over the past two months.

Raiders public relations director Mike Taylor reacted sharply to inquiries from Cole on this point, and refused to ask Davis for a reaction. 

“You obviously don’t know Al Davis,” Taylor told Cole.  “Self-doubt is not part of the equation with Al Davis.  I’m not going to justify this tripe, this drivel by even asking [Davis] for his response.  It’s ludicrous, it’s insane, it’s rumor-mongering and it’s irresponsible journalism.

“The fact is, we’re very excited about what we’ve done here this offseason and looking forward to a great year.  We’ve signed or traded for three of the top players at their position and picked up two of the top players in the draft the past two years.”

We, frankly, agree with Taylor; we can’t imagine Davis allowing himself to doubt the moves that the team has made.  Do we agree with the moves, and the money paid to the players?  Nope.  But we simply don’t think that Al Davis would:  (1) make such a confession to himself; or (2) make such a confession to anyone else.

Cole also tries to connect the dots between the talk of Davis doubting his move and recent reports of talks with former Packers V.P. of player finance Andrew Brandt about a job with the team.  The thinking apparently is that Davis was hiring Brandt, who was bean counter in Green Bay, to come in and take over some of the personnel function.

Earlier this month, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that the Raiders were close to hiring Brandt.  We heard at the time (but never got around to writing, frankly) that Brandt wasn’t even on the team’s radar screen.  The thinking in some circles is that Brandt and/or his agent was trying to create a market for his services by puffing with respect to a potential gig in Oakland.  (See Samir Sulemain.)

Cole, citing two unnamed sources, reports that Brandt actually turned down a gig with the Raiders, offering instead to work as a consultant.

And that makes no sense to us.  Though Brandt tried hard to create the impression when he left the Packers that he was leaving on his own terms to pursue other challenges, presumably in other industries, word on the street is that Brandt was pushed out of Green Bay.  So why would he want to be a consultant and not an employee of the Raiders?

Coles does good work and in this case he cites multiple sources and does all the other things that a journalist should do.  We just happen not to buy any of it.