Tag: Mark Davis

Antonio Pierce says talks with Mark Davis ‘positive’ despite Raiders losing streak

Antonio Pierce’s job as Raiders head coach is on shaky ground, but he says he and Mark Davis’s conversations have still been positive.

It’s been a long season for Antonio Pierce. He was handed the reins as Raiders head coach after leading the team to a strong push late last season as interim head coach. But it has not gone as he and owner Mark Davis had hoped and the team is in the throes of a ten-game losing streak.

Pierce had the backing of the players, led by Maxx Crosby, to return as head coach. Davis listened to them as well as many of the fans and gave Pierce a shot. The team even fired new OC Luke Getsy midseason in the hopes that might improve things. It hasn’t. The team has continued to lose. In fact the losing streak without Getsy (five) is now the same as it was with Getsy.

The beleaguered head coach was asked Tuesday about how his talks with Mark Davis have gone of late.

“Me and Mark Davis talk often. And the conversations have been the same as they always are. Very positive,” said Pierce.

He was also asked if he thought he would be back next year, to which he would only say “I’m under contract.” Which is not really answering the question. Though, it certainly doesn’t sound like he’s feeling very confident.

Mark Davis says Tom Brady will have a say in Raiders QB drafting plans

Tom Brady is more than just a minority owner for the Raiders. Mark Davis will be seeking his advice on QB’s in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Quarterback is the obvious glaring need for the Raiders as they are weeks away from the 2025 offseason. Though, to be fair, this will be the third straight offseason they will enter in which that is the case. Only this time they find themselves in a position to get one in the draft.

The first time that was the case, Tom Brady was a hot topic of conversation as the replacement for Derek Carr who was cut after the team failed to find a trade partner.

As it happens, Brady joined the Raiders this offseason as a minority owner. And now with the team appearing headed for a position at or near the top of the 2025 draft, Mark Davis has told The Athletic’s Tashan Reed that he will be tapping Brady’s expertise about what direction they will go in landing a new franchise signal caller.

If the Raiders continue down the path they are currently on — that being a losing streak that has reached nine games — they could have any QB in this draft they want. Which would end up making it, basically a decision between Colorado’s Shadeur Sanders or Miami’s Cam Ward.

As of now, the Raiders are neck and neck with the New York Giants for the rights to the top pick in the draft. Should the Giants get the top pick and the Raiders finish just behind them, the decision as to whom they get could be out of their hands for the most part.

Brady input in this matter could be pretty valuable in assisting GM Tom Telesco in this matter.

Just so long as Telesco is allower to overrule Brady should he think the Raiders could afford to wait for a sleeper pick in the sixth round just as the Patriots did when they landed him in the 2000 draft.

Raiders owner makes clear Maxx Crosby will not be traded

Mark Davis crushes the. pipe dreams of fans across the league thinking their team might pick the carcass of the Raiders.

It’s been a fun discussion around the league of late that Maxx Crosby could be had in a trade. But it was always unfounded pipe dreams type stuff. On Saturday, Raiders owner Mark Davis put an end to those hopes, telling ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the team will not be trading Crosby either before or after the deadline.

It started when Davante Adams was sent to the Jets. Suddenly everyone saw the Raiders as starting a tear down and rebuild. And when gutting a team, the discussions always surround the team’s most valuable assets.

No asset on the Raiders is more valuable than Maxx Crosby. He would garner potentially multiple first round picks.

But trading him would be the most obvious signal this team is ripping this team to the studs and starting over. A team that just a few months ago had the best defense in the league. A team that weeks ago thought of itself as being a solid QB away from competing.

They may be farther away than that as it turns out, but they don’t appear nearly ready to go scorched earth on the roster.

Trading away Davante Adams was not a signal for anything but that Adams wanted out so he could join his old pas Aaron Rodgers in New York where he thinks he’ll have a shot at the playoffs and putting up big numbers again. And that’s all it was a signal of.

Mark Davis emphatically emailed ESPN to say Maxx Crosby isn’t being traded

Maxx Crosby is not being traded, per Raiders owner Mark Davis.

 

You might want to sit down if you were hoping the Las Vegas Raiders were going to trade superstar defensive end Maxx Crosby before the 2024 NFL Deadline.

With Crosby trade speculation in the air, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Saturday night that Raiders owner Mark Davis emailed the sports media company about Crosby not being available for a trade.

“We’re Not Trading Maxx Crosby,” the email reportedly read, per Schefter. “Before Or After The Trade Deadline!!!”

Schefter confirmed NFL teams have been interested in Crosby, but Davis’ strong statement makes that possibility a non-factor ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline.

Unless Davis is putting on the biggest smokescreen of all time, Crosby will stay with Las Vegas through the season. The trade dreams appear over.

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Did Raiders owner Mark Davis just hint to Shedeur Sanders he plans to draft the quarterback?

Maybe Shedeur Sanders will end up in Las Vegas.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is still months away from the end of the Buffaloes’ 2024 college football season and even further from the 2025 NFL Draft. But the talk and rumors and speculation have started about which NFL team could draft the star passer.

Sanders, with the help of standout wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter, has had a strong start to the season and ranks among college football’s top quarterbacks. Through five games — Colorado is 4-1 — Sanders has thrown for 1,630 yards, the seventh-most in FBS play, and his 14 passing touchdowns also have him tied for seventh.

During the Buffs’ Week 6 bye weekend, Sanders was at the New York Liberty-Las Vegas Aces Game 3 in the WNBA semifinals Friday and may have gotten a peek into his future after an exchange with Mark Davis, the owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and Aces.

Las Vegas CBS affiliate reporter Gilberto Obregón captured video of Sanders and Davis chatting, and while it’s unclear what their entire conversation was about, Davis can clearly be heard saying: “Who knows? You might be home right now.”

For The Win’s Christian D’Andrea dropped his super early 2025 NFL mock draft and has Sanders as the No. 4 overall pick to the Carolina Panthers. While recognizing the draft order will drastically change as the NFL season continues, he explains his logic:

Sanders is capable of great things but also launches himself into negative plays while allowing good to be the enemy of great. But no passer arguably has the ceiling Deion’s son has, and the Panthers badly need a spark to wash away the early memories of the David Tepper era in Charlotte.

But who knows? Maybe Sanders will end up as a Raider.

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Agents name Raiders as NFL’s most unstable franchise

In a survey of agents, a great many peg the Raiders as NFL’s most unstable franchise

In a survey of agents done by The Athletic, it turns out a great many see the Raiders as being the NFL’s most unstable franchise in the league.

In total, they spoke with 31 agents to get their opinions on the best and worst run organizations in the league. Seven of those agents named the Raiders. The only team with more agents pegging them as the worst in the league were the Panthers (9).

Here’s what two of those agents had to say as to why they chose the Raiders as the most unstable in the NFL.

• “Raiders. The owner (Mark Davis) frequently makes significant changes. He put Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler in charge and fired them after less than two seasons. Now, the Raiders have an inexperienced coach in Antonio Pierce and a retread GM hire in Tom Telesco. Organizations start at the top, and Davis doesn’t provide stability.”

• “Raiders. Traditional choices in this category, like Washington and Arizona, have improved or appear headed in a good direction. Vegas keeps making changes and now finds itself without an apparent quarterback of the future or legitimate starter when it needed one following last season.”

Hard to argue that hiring Josh McDaniels was a huge misstep for Mark Davis. Though I wouldn’t say firing him was a mistake. Nor would I say hiring Antonio Pierce and Tom Telesco were mistakes

One can’t argue it is a sign of instability to be going into their second straight season without a franchise quarterback. Hell, you could argue they haven’t had a *real* franchise quarterback for much longer than that.

Moving on from Derek Carr last year was a good decision. But it was several years too late. And very few organizations would put themselves in the position to not properly attempt to find a franchise QB to replace him. Certainly no successful franchises.

Aces owner Mark Davis believes double standard in WNBA is a problem

Aces owner Mark Davis believes the WNBA has a sort of double standard when deciding who to investigate and why.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recently announced it had reached $100,000 sponsorship deals with each player on the Las Vegas Aces. Almost immediately, the WNBA announced it was investigating the deals.

Aces owner Mark Davis spoke on the subject and believes the WNBA has a  double standard when deciding who to investigate and why. For example, Davis owns the Las Vegas Raiders in the NFL, but they cannot sponsor the Aces. However, Nike, which is an investor in the WNBA, can sponsor players.

“Nike is an owner of the WNBA and they’re allowed to sponsor Caitlin Clark for $28 million on one player and nobody’s complaining or investigating,” Davis said. “And I think it’s great that Nike’s doing that. But let’s give credit to where credit’s due: Las Vegas Convention Authority is stepping up and recognizing these women.”

When the sponsorship of the Aces’ players was announced, the language used seemed like less a sponsorship and more another way to pay the players a salary. However, the words used will be less important than what is written in the contracts and how the services from the players to the LVCVA are performed.

Sponsorship deals must align with WNBA collective bargaining agreement language. The issue with this sponsorship could be with the CBA language that forbids teams or team affiliates from coordinating with third parties to “agree to pay compensation for basketball services (even if such compensation is ostensibly designated as being for non-basketball services) to a player under contract to the team.” In recent years, the league has investigated the Aces multiple times.

“There was absolutely nothing done wrong,” Davis said. “And I think it’s sad that they used the word investigation instead of something a little softer to say, ‘Hey, we might look into it’ or whatever. But they’re going to find there’s nothing wrong.”

Davis also believes the language used by the league could deter other sponsors from investing in teams and players for fear of violating WNBA rules. With more money flowing into the league, there will be more situations the WNBA will need to be comfortable with.

“When you say ‘investigation,’ other organizations that are in our community might say, ‘Hey, we may want to sit back and wait. Maybe this is illegal’ or this or that,” Davis said. “And I think that’s the wrong approach.”

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Aces owner Mark Davis slams WNBA for investigating $100k player sponsorships

“There was absolutely nothing done wrong.”

Las Vegas Aces owner Mark Davis isn’t pleased about the WNBA’s investigation into the $100,000 sponsorships players received from the city earlier this month.

On May 17, news about the Aces’ financial gifts from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LCVA) quickly infiltrated WNBA circles. Eventually, the ruckus about players receiving $100,000 each found its way back to the WNBA. A day later, the league launched an investigation.

Mark Davis is taking exception to the league’s actions and calling them out. Here’s what CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones noted that Davis shared with him about the situation:

“There was absolutely nothing done wrong,”Davis said at the conclusion of the NFL league meetings, where he was also representing his Las Vegas Raiders. “And I think it’s sad that they used the word investigation instead of something a little softer to say, ‘Hey we might look into it’ or whatever. But they’re going to find there’s nothing wrong.”

“When you say ‘investigation,’ other organizations that are in our community might say, ‘Hey, we may want to sit back and wait. Maybe this is illegal’ or this or that,” Davis said. “And I think that’s the wrong approach.

“Again, the word investigation is not good. It should have been, ‘This is great. Let’s see more of these come forward and do this.'”

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Watch: Antonio Pierce talks how he went to bat for CB Jack Jones to get Raiders to sign him

Antonio Pierce staked his reputation on CB Jack Jones and convinced Raiders brass to sign him

With Josh McDaniels in charge, the Raiders had a swagger problem. They got plenty of it when Antonio Pierce took over as head coach. But he needed all the players on board with that. He had a few who were created their own including Maxx Crosby and Robert Spillane, and was looking for more.

That’s when Jack Jones hit the waiver wire. Pierce had coached Jones in high school and in college. Jones had become known for having some off field issues including getting caught with a firearm in the airport of all places.

So, when he was cut by the Patriots late last season, many teams would shy away from him. But not Pierce. he wanted Jones on his team right away.

Here he talks about how Raiders GM Champ Kelly and owner Mark Davis were hesitant to add Jones, but Pierce staked his reputation on his former player.

 

“As soon as [Jack Jones] hit that wire, and I saw it come across, I ran right upstairs to our interim GM Champ Kelly and said ‘Champ, he can help us,” said Pierce. “He said ‘Oh, AP, I don’t know, he got a lot of baggage.’ I go ‘I know, trust me, I’ve been there for all of them.’ Then I went to Mark Davis ‘I don’t know, AP, ahh. Right now you want to do that?'”

Pierce said he wouldn’t let it go and soon he was insisting the team make this happen. “I said, ‘you know what, I believe in him so much, if we eff this up, get rid of both of us at the end of the season. Because I know what I’m getting with Jack Jones.”

Jones has a coach in Pierce who believes in him. Something we all need at one point or another. Or perhaps more than one point. And Jones, at least over the final seven weeks of the season, justified his coach’s belief in him.

By Week 14, Pierce had had it with Marcus Peters dogging it and giving poor effort on tackling and he yanked him in favor of Jones. And Jones immediately paid dividends with a pick six and another one the following week.

He fit right in with the energy Pierce was trying to get from his group. Or as Pierce put it “Our swag level went out the roof when we put him in our secondary.”

As if now, Jones is the favorite to be the outside starter entering his third season. And Pierce enters his first season as the full time head coach. The gambit paid off for both of them.

Why Allegiant Stadium shares a nickname with the Death Star from Star Wars, explained

Some people think it looks more like a giant Roomba vacuum cleaner, though.

Allegiant Stadium, the host of the 2024 Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, is a very beautiful place.

Thanks to Raiders owner Mark Davis, the stadium also happens to have a nickname inspired by the Star Wars film series. That is because the first time Davis welcomed the players to the stadium back in 2020, he referred to it as the Death Star. Via ESPN, he said:

“Welcome to the Death Star, where our opponents’ dreams come to die.”

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ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez said that he told Davis that the Death Star was blown up multiple times throughout the Star Wars series. But that didn’t matter at all to Davis, who still thinks the $1.9 billion stadium bared a resemblance to the Death Star due to its sleek black and grey facade.

Ethan Miller – Getty Images

Despite the unfortunate fate of the Death Star in the Star Wars movies, this nickname is an identity that the team has embraced. During NFL games as recently as this season, the video board at the stadium has read “Welcome to the Death Star” with players holding light sabers.

Lucasfilms

Jon Gruden, who was the head coach of the Raiders (for the second time) from 2018 until 2021, said that it was a “cool name” for the stadium and that he did not “give a damn” about Star Wars.

Johnathan Abram, a former safety for the Raiders, also described the stadium as the Death Star when he discussed it with NFL.com’s Ian Rapaport.

Even if you think this place looks more like a giant Roomba vacuum, the team has landed on The Death Star as its chosen nickname.

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