Tag: raiders head coach

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.

The Athletic: Raiders coach Antonio Pierce ‘unlikely’ to return in 2025

Raiders coach Antonio Pierce has yet to finish his first full season on the job, but The Athletic says his tenure could end soon.

Needless to say, this season hasn’t gone as the Raiders planned. After a 2-2 start, superstar wide receiver Davante Adams requested a trade and the team hasn’t won a game since, losing its sixth straight on Sunday against the Dolphins.

Adams plays for the Jets now, and injuries are piling up on the Las Vegas defense. As a result, coach Antonio Pierce is struggling to field a competitive team on game day.

Or is Pierce simply the wrong man to lead the Raiders? Could team owner Mark Davis move on from Pierce after hiring him as full-time coach less than a year ago?

According to The Athletic’s Josh Kendall, it seems “unlikely” that Davis will bring Pierce back next season, citing the presence of minority owner and NFL great Tom Brady. Kendall listed the Raiders No. 29 in his latest NFL power rankings and said Pierce’s seat is already hot.

Antonio Pierce is 7-12 in two seasons after the Raiders got blown out by Miami on Sunday. They have bounced back and forth between quarterbacks all year long and never felt like a threat in the AFC West or anywhere else. Jakobi Meyers was Las Vegas’ leading rusher Sunday with one carry for 20 yards. At least there’s Brock Bowers, who had 13 catches for 126 yards against the Dolphins. With new minority owner Tom Brady in the building, it seems unlikely majority owner Mark Davis will stand pat with Pierce as head coach.

Pierce’s fate likely rests in his team’s performance over the final seven weeks of the season. As Kendall notes, poor quarterback play has held the team back all year, so it will be tough for Pierce and the Raiders to finish strong.

If the Raiders continue to lose by large margins, Pierce could definitely be gone at the end of the season. But as long as the team shows improvement, even minor improvement, Pierce will likely return. The offense looked improved under new offensive coordinator Scott Turner, and that bodes well for Pierce.

Davis knew Pierce was light on experience when he hired him, and I don’t think he’ll be quick to hand Pierce his walking papers, even if Brady disagrees. Davis stated he wants Brady to find him a quarterback, not make decisions normally left to the majority owner. So I think it’s likely Pierce, who was hand-picked by Davis, will remain the Raiders coach.

Pierce’s fate is anyone’s guess, however, so Kendall could be correct. We’ll see how it plays out after this frustrating campaign in Las Vegas comes to a close.

The Raiders must make Antonio Pierce their full-time head coach, and here’s why

Antonio Pierce’s ability to bring out the most in his players is one reason he should be the Raiders’ full-time head coach.

The off-season coaching search should be as simple as possible for Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis.

In fact, that coaching search shouldn’t even exist.

Davis made a major miscalculation when he hired Josh McDaniels on January 31, 2022. McDaniels was the man in Davis’ mind to replace interim head coach Rich Bisaccia, who excelled in that role following Jon Gruden’s retirement in disgrace. McDaniels turned out to be his own disaster in his own ways, and his November 1 departure could have had the Raiders completely unmoored.

But with linebackers coach Antonio Pierce promoted to interim head coach, this Raiders team has become an entirely different animal. That’s been especially true on defense. Through Week 9, the Raiders ranked 19th in Defensive DVOA. From Week 10 through last Monday’s 20-14 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders rank third in Defensive DVOA, behind only the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Jets.

The AP Effect is real, and it is spectacular.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the AP Effect is cornerback Jack Jones. The New England Patriots, who selected Jones in the fourth round of the 2022 draft, waived him in mid-November, and the Raiders swept him right up.

There’s some serious history there, as Jones played his high-school football at Long Beach Polytechnic. Who was Jones’ head coach there? Antonio Pierce. How much has that mattered? In four games with New England this season, Jones had allowed eight catches on 11 targets for 115 yards, 21 yards after the catch, 1 touchdown, no interceptions, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 136.6.

Since the Raiders got him, Jones has allowed 11 catches on 18 targets for 78 yards, 32 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 31.5.

Fellow Raiders cornerback Nate Hobbs has said that Jones is a fanatic about studying tape, and that’s transferred to the rest of the group. Pierce acknowledged that, and brought it all back to their high school days.

“Yeah, when Jack was younger we had a lot of study hall at Long Beach Poly. Those office hours led into watching film the way Jack was as a player and person. So, he’s learned at a young age that film is important. He’s carried that into his now professional career. It’s good to see. You really want that with a lot of players. All of us should be a student of the game. This is our job, right? It’s your job to know it. It’s your job, it’s nobody else. I can tell you all the information, but it’s your job as a professional to go there and do what you need to do to get yourself ready and prepared to play, and he’s done that obviously in the last two or three weeks by his performance. That’s got to continue, but you’d like to see everybody doing it.

“If Nate [Hobbs] is talking with Jack, then I’ll say, ‘Jack, why are you not bringing Nate? Why are you not bringing Amik [Robertson]? Where’s the rest of the DBs, all the corners should be there.’ We should all be seeing the same thing, right? You know what this building is? It’s silver and black. We should all see the same colors. Don’t make up any other new colors and new schemes.”

Jones’ two interceptions with the Raiders haven’t just been interceptions; he’s had pick-sixes in two straight games against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15…

…and the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 16.

Making the most of what your players have to offer is one of the hallmarks of good coaching. Antonio Pierce has done that across the board, and that’s just one of many reasons the Raiders have no need for a coaching search at this point.