RAIDERS NAME INTERIM ANTONIO PIERCE AS THE NEW HEAD COACH
The Las Vegas Raiders have appointed interim head coach Antonio Pierce as their new head coach, the team announced on Friday.
Pierce, who is just eighteen months into his NFL coaching career, will now take over the reins in Las Vegas as a full time head coach. The 45-year-old was tapped to replace Josh McDaniels on October 31st on an interim basis. Both McDaniels and General Manager Dave Ziegler were fired by owner Mark Davis after a disappointing 3-5 start to the season.
Pierce earned the job by revitalizing the Raiders down the stretch to finish the year second in the AFC West with an 8-9 record, winning three of their last four games to end the season. Asked in his Week 18 postgame press conference if he deserved the head coaching job, Pierce said, “I would never use the word deserve. Hopefully I’ve earned it.”
In a short period of time, Pierce seemed to empower a downtrodden team and evidently flipped the organization’s culture as proven by the team’s performance in his first game as interim head coach, guiding the Raiders to an outstanding 30-6 win over the New York Giants at home. Pierce had previously won the Super Bowl with the Giants in 2006 but ended his night in celebration with the Raiders, as the team was recorded famously smoking victory cigars in the locker room.
Pierce’s tenure also saw the Las Vegas Raiders record the biggest win in franchise history as the team took down the Los Angeles Chargers in a significant 63-21 victory on December 15th. Pierce then guided the Raiders to an upset win over the Kansas City Chiefs the following week at Arrowhead as the Raiders piled on the defending Super Bowl champions 20-14 on Christmas day. That was only the Raiders’ second win at GEHA Field since 2013.
Three-time Pro Bowl defensive end, Maxx Crosby, who threatened to request a trade if the team didn’t hire Pierce as the new head coach, reacted to the news with a tweet late last night. “Let’s work!” wrote Crosby next to an eagle and Pirates flag emoji.
Most of the leaders on the team always spoke highly of Pierce and openly communicated their desire for Pierce to take over the head coaching job on a permanent basis. All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams said regarding his head coach, “He embodies what it means to be a Raider and that mentality, that swag and all the things that he endorses is the things I believe in.”
Crosby said about Pierce, “There’s only 32 head coaches in the whole world, so you’ve got to find a leader of men. And when you’ve got one of them in the building, I don’t know why you would let them go.”
Las Vegas played with a different swagger once Pierce took over and Raiders fans will be hoping that continues going forward. The team not only went 5-4 with Pierce but also won 3 of 4 division games during that period with the only in-division loss coming at the hands of the Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium.
Since Pierce assumed the head coaching gig through the end of the season, the Raiders led the league in fewest points per game allowed (16), recorded the most defensive touchdowns (4), and had the fewest penalties (31), while finishing tied for third in sacks (30). The team also outscored its opponents 206-144 during that span.
The move to retain Pierce on a permanent basis is the one most stakeholders wanted, including the fans – whose chants of “AP” echoed all across the Allegiant Stadium in Week 18.. Raiders’ players and fans wanted owner Mark Davis to hire interim head coach Rich Bissacia in 2022 but Davis ended up going the other way, hiring former Bill Belichick apprentice, Josh McDaniels. This time around, he appears to have listened to the masses.
With their head coaching situation taken care of, the Vegas’ attention will now switch to finding a new general manager. As per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Indianapolis Colts assistant General Manager Ed Dodds and interim General Manager Champ Kelly are the two leading candidates to take over the front office job, previously held by Dave Ziegler.
Pierce is also set to embark on hiring his new coaching staff, including a new offensive coordinator. The Raiders parted ways with former OC Nick Lombardi along with McDaniels in October and should be in the market for a new replacement this offseason.
As reported by NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo on Thursday, the hiring process in Las Vegas will be aided by Tom Coughlin, who consulted for Pierce during the season last year. Most of the coaches on the offensive side aren’t expected to be retained, as per Ian Rapoport, meaning Raiders quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree, who finished the season as the team’s interim offensive coordinator, is now set to become available.
Pierce is expected, however, to officially make former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis a member of his staff. Lewis, who was Pierce’s mentor and coached with him in Washington, was brought in by the young head coach after he received the interim job and is expected to stay on in a more formal capacity.
The new head coaching hire in Las Vegas means that there are now two filled head coaching jobs in the NFL, following New England’s hire of Jerod Mayo on Friday last week. Both head coaching roles were filled by former Pro Bowl linebackers who aren’t that far removed from their playing days and most recently coached inside linebackers for their respective organizations. The two new hires are also a strong start for the NFL’s efforts to improve diversity amongst the head coaching ranks as well.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Ted Kerwin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.