The Raiders are meeting with a highly regarded candidate for the first defensive hire of the Josh McDaniels era. Las Vegas is set to interview former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai today, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (Twitter link).
[Related: Bears To Hire Alan Williams As DC]
Desai’s NFL coaching career dates back to 2013, and had only been spent in Chicago until now. At the age of 38, he already has an impressive amount of experience, between three different roles in the college ranks (including special teams coordinator at Boston College) and, most recently, the DC role he held with the Bears in 2021. With Matt Eberflus electing to bring a familiar face in Alan Williams with him from Indianapolis, though, Desai is in search of a new home.
One of the top young defensive minds in the coaching ranks, Desai’s unit ranked sixth in the league in yards allowed this season, despite injuries to the likes of Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks. That success earned him interest from the Seahawks earlier this month, as they requested an interview for their DC vacancy.
While he hasn’t officially taken another position yet, current Raiders DC Gus Bradley certainly seems to be on the way out. Between this Desai interview, and the meeting Bradley has already had with the Colts for their DC opening, there will apparently be a new voice for a Vegas defensive unit that ranked 26th in the league in points allowed in 2021.
On the surface it seemed like the Raiders defense did a better job but apparently those were just my homer goggles lol. We did have a rough year with injuries but we have the talent to perform much better and need to put more pressure on the QB. This guy seems like a come up for us based on what he got from the Bears D last season and he was just a casualty of a regime change.
Maybe the new regime will utilize the draft better to get more talent on the defense. Seems like we have gone too long needing LB and DT help.
I feel like it’s cause they were historically awful the year before, so in comparison to that defense they were much improved. They actually kept them in games so in our eyes they were good but in reality they weren’t lol.
They were good enough so that one could question whether it was the DC or the talent level. They basically made all the tackles they were supposed to make, which was 100% better than last year. Mostly, they just couldn’t live down the Ferrell or Arnette picks.
Would be an excellent hire. Hope he stays away for his own mental health.
Hard to understand why Gus Bradley is a DC anywhere in this league – as he basically had one good “legion of boom” year in Seattle and has otherwise been mediocre or worse.
Not really, he was mediocre or better all 4 years with the chargers including some top 10 years. He’s definitely worthy of a DC position lol