Two months ago Malcolm Koonce was not in a great place. The former third round pick was entering the latter half of his third NFL season seemingly going nowhere fast. Spinning his wheels.
Over 25 games — a season and a half — with Josh McDaniels as head coach, Koonce had not notched a single sack. He looked closer to being on the roster bubble than the starting lineup.
That all changed in an instant when Antonio Pierce took over as head coach. The first game under Pierce, Koonce has a career game, not only notching his first sack since 2021, but adding a career-best four tackles. And he did this without seeing his snap count go up from the first eight games of the season.
This wasn’t a one-off either. Each week it was another career best for Koonce. The following week he had another sack, a career-best two QB hits, and his first every forced fumble.
Five games into the AP era, Koonce had already matched or surpassed his entire career totals in sacks (2.0) and QB hits (six). Again, while not seeing his snaps counts jump up from earlier in the season.
Koonce would add six more sacks (!) over the final four games to finish with eight sacks — all in the nine games under Pierce as head coach — while adding 14 QB hits and three forced fumbles.
I asked Koonce whether Pierce had anything to do with his sudden development.
“He definitely had something to do with it,” Koonce said of Pierce. “The whole atmosphere of practice changed, the overall be yourself and just play how you play.”
“It definitely is a whole different vibe. It feels way more enjoyable to be here. Kind of don’t want to leave the locker room.”
Several Raiders players have talked about how much Pierce allowing them to be themselves on the field helped them to play better and made the game more fun. For Koonce it was a boost of confidence that did the trick.
“I’m definitely more confident now. Not thinking so much,” Koonce continued. “My first two years, every play I was hyper focused on everything. I think that’s what messed me up.”
This is a stark contrast to Josh McDaniels who was seen at practice ripping into Koonce for daring to get near the quarterback on a rollout. Kinda hard to be your best when your success is admonished rather than praised.
In many cases, players just respond better to certain coaches. And you could say that for this instance, but Koonce isn’t an isolated situation. Several other players on the Raiders have had similar experiences.
Let’s take three players in particular — Koonce, Maxx Crosby, and Jack Jones. Three players who are all in very different places in their careers and their development.
Crosby is an established veteran who has succeeded under four different coaches in his five seasons with the Raiders. Even still, he put up 9.5 of his 14.5 sacks this seasons in the final nine games under Pierce.
Jones is a clearly talented player just joined the Raiders midseason after being cut by the Patriots in just his second season for alleged attitude problems. He had two pick-sixes and four pass breakups in the last five games.
And Koonce was struggling to develop over his first 2.5 seasons in the NFL only to breakout in a big way over the last nine games.
All three are saying the same thing, with Crosby being the most vocal, because, well, he’s a vocal guy, but also because he’s the star of this team and he’s earned it.
For Jones it’s clearly about Pierce’s ability to channel his attitude to the playing field. Which is vintage Raiders to take players who other teams have dumped for being ‘misfits’ or having ‘attitude problems’ and putting them in the right environment where they can thrive being themselves.
Koonce is a soft spoken guy. Very different from Crosby and Jones or Antonio Pierce. And yet Koonce’s turnaround on the field perfectly encapsulates the overall impact Pierce had on this Raiders squad.
Pierce may or may not have his interim tag removed and take over as Raiders head coach. There are other strong candidates out there. But the effect Pierce has had on these players and this team is undeniable.