Posted by Will Brinson

The Raiders lost the single-most important figure to their team on Saturday, when Al Davis died at the age of 82. Davis was their owner, their GM and their Director of Player Personnel. He ran the team.

We mentioned Saturday that Mark Davis, Al's son, would take over as managing partner. Charley Casserly of CBS Sports reported Sunday on The NFL Today that the Raiders actually have a full contingency plan in place to move forward after Davis' death.

"Right now the control of the team will be with his wife Carol and his son Mark," Casserly said. "Through the years he told me this is exactly what his plan was. The Raiders verified it to me yesterday. The biggest decisions you make in-season from a football point of view are roster decisions.

"I talked to the Raiders yesterday -- the mechanism is in place with the scouting department to handle that. Obviously Hue Jackson takes a bigger control and voice in those decisions."



Casserly also reported that CEO Amy Trask -- the first woman ever hired for such a position in the NFL -- will represent the team at the owners meetings on Tuesday, and that she will handle all business decisions for Oakland moving forward.

Worth noting: it's a very nice tribute to Davis' legacy that two often under-represented minorities (Jackson and Trask) will handle the majority of the day-to-day decisions for Oakland going forward.

Remembering Al Davis

Freeman: Al Davis helped make the NFL great Prisco: NFL loses a great football man in Davis Judge: What's next for the Raiders now? Wilson: Photo of Davis throughout the years Reaction from around the league to Davis death

And it's also worth noting that this contingency plan isn't that different from the Raiders previous operation; there's no new authority figures outside of Mark stepping in, and it appears as if Davis was grooming members of the organization for a seamless transition after his death.

The team will need to add a general manager, of course, and as well as someone to handle player personnel, but that will probably involve a more detailed process than simply looking for the first available name. Jason LaCanfora of the NFL Network also notes that there will be plenty of speculation about additional outside ownership, the team moving to Los Angeles and stadium security.

In other words, there's only so much planning an organization can do when one man meant to much to the process of running the team.

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