When the Raiders begin the search for a new head coach and general manager to replace Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, they could have a difficult time attracting the most desirable talent. Per Jeff Howe of The Athletic (subscription required), owner Mark Davis vowed that he would give the duo a minimum of three years to return the Raiders to contention, but he fired them midway through their second season. Once seen as a patient owner, Davis has undermined his reputation in that regard, and most of the coaches and execs that Howe spoke with believe that the quick trigger will have a negative impact on his search.
One executive said, “I don’t know who you’re going to convince to take those jobs. I think Mark Davis made it harder on himself,” while another added, “[i]t definitely makes the jobs less appealing.”
To be clear, Davis will likely have plenty of candidates to choose from thanks to the desirability and rarity of a top job in the NFL coaching and personnel ranks. Still, it would not be surprising for the biggest fish in the upcoming hiring cycle to rebuff Davis’ overtures.
“If you’re only going to give me two years, just be upfront and honest with me,” a rival coach said. “I can handle that. It’d change the entire way you’d try to build the team. If you’re thinking about setting up to take off and win by Year 3, that’s how you’re going to manage your roster.”
McDaniels, of course, is a proponent of “hard coaching,” and it appears he alienated many Raiders players with his demanding style. As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com writes, players “ripped into” McDaniels during the team meeting in which he allowed his charges to air their grievances, and players were especially critical of (among other things) McDaniels’ micromanaging and the way he deflected blame for issues with play-calling. Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer adds that interim HC Antonio Pierce attempted to speak on behalf of McDaniels at that meeting, but Pierce’s use of the Super Bowl-winning Giants team he played on as an example of what a good locker room culture can do irked McDaniels, who was part of the Patriots squad that lost that title game to New York (video link).
At the following practice, McDaniels attempted to give the players what they wanted by being less involved and not “overcorrecting” by stepping in after every mistake. However, one source told Rapoport that the new approach did not suit McDaniels well, that the head coach looked like “a shell of himself,” and that it was clear McDaniels’ tenure was coming to an end. Ultimately, McDaniels was unable to recapture the team chemistry that Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda.com believes was destroyed when quarterback and team leader Derek Carr was released earlier this year.
The driving force behind Carr’s departure remains a bit unclear. Rapoport’s sources say that Davis “led the push” to replace Carr, with McDaniels and Ziegler eventually getting on board, while Pauline says McDaniels was the one who wanted to move on from the franchise’s longtime passer. Back in late December/early January, it was reported that the McDaniels-Ziegler regime saw Carr as a poor fit in McDaniels’ offense, and that while McDaniels was prepared to let Carr play out the remainder of the 2022 campaign, Davis — who had been “lukewarm” on Carr for some time — wanted the QB to be benched for the last two games of the season.
Even if, as Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports suggests, Davis and the McDaniels-Ziegler duo were aligned on the Carr situation, subsequent quarterback-related missteps accelerated this week’s firings (although it should be noted, as Rapoport writes, that former club president Dan Ventrelle agreed to include in Carr’s 2022 extension the no-trade clause that undermined the Raiders’ leverage when they tried to deal Carr this past offseason. Ventrelle entered into that agreement with Carr’s camp prior to speaking with other club officials). We already heard that McDaniels’ decision to start former Patriots QB Brian Hoyer over rookie Aidan O’Connell in Week 7 rankled Davis, and obviously the decision to sign another of McDaniels’ former pupils, Jimmy Garoppolo, proved to be a poor one, as McDaniels apparently overestimated the ease with which Garoppolo would reacclimate to McDaniels’ offense.
On the subject of Garoppolo, Rapoport reminds us that the Raiders were among the teams that tried to trade up for the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, with quarterback Bryce Young the target. However, McDaniels reportedly did not want to “grow with” a rookie signal-caller, so the Raiders stood down while the Panthers catapulted up the draft board to claim the No. 1 spot before free agency opened. McDaniels & Co. acquired Garoppolo shortly thereafter.
It has been an open secret that Ziegler, despite his general manager title, took a backseat to McDaniels in terms of personnel matters. Indeed, Pauline called Ziegler a “glorified scout” and likened the McDaniels-Ziegler pairing to the Jon-Gruden–Mike Mayock partnership that preceded it. So while Pauline reports that Davis will be interested in hiring University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, it is fair to wonder if that would be the best move for the owner to make. After all, Harbaugh would also want full autonomy over personnel decisions, and like Mayock and Ziegler, any GM brought in along with Harbaugh would be little more than a figurehead.
That is to say nothing of the fact that Harbaugh, who is currently dealing with allegations of an elaborate sign-stealing scheme after already having served a three-game suspension this year for alleged recruiting violations, may not be the hot NFL candidate he once was. Per Rapoport and NFL.com colleague Tom Pelissero, the NCAA has not ruled on the alleged recruiting violations or sign-stealing operation — the three-game ban was imposed by Michigan — and the NFL may force Harbaugh to serve any NCAA-ordered suspension should he return to the pros. Mark Maske of the Washington Post, meanwhile, says it is not certain that the league would go that route.
Still, in light of the failures of the two prior regimes, a Harbaugh hire could be a tough sell for Davis. In fact, Jones writes that Davis will be seeking a “player-centric” coach rather than a coach with the hard-nosed styles of Harbaugh, Gruden, and McDaniels. Jones also believes Davis will seek to hire a GM before hiring an HC.
In any event, Davis has promised a “comprehensive search” for a new head coach, and Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal says Davis is being encouraged to hire a president of football operations to aid in the process. Ventrelle was replaced by Sandra Douglass Morgan in July 2022, and Jones writes that Morgan, along with longtime executive Tom Delaney and personnel man Ken Herock, will also offer counsel (though Pauline opines that most of Herock’s advice has led to “ruinous” decisions).
Jones echoes his recent report that Tom Brady will also influence Davis’ thinking. As expected, Brady’s would-be stake in the Raiders was not discussed at the league meetings last month, with Jones and Albert Breer of SI.com reporting that other owners take issue with the bargain price at which Davis is trying to sell a share of his club to Brady. Colts owner and finance committee member Jim Irsay told reporters, including Jori Epstein of Yahoo! Sports, “the number just had to be a reasonable number for purchase price.”
Breer adds that Brady’s broadcasting contract with FOX is also a hurdle to ratification of the purchase. Understandably, teams do not want anyone with an ownership stake in a rival outfit having the access and obtaining the inside information that broadcasters often enjoy, so much will need to change for Brady to be approved as a minority owner at the next league meetings in December.
Given Davis’ deep respect for Brady, it stands to reason that the all-time great will be an important voice in Davis’ ear regardless of his ownership status. And while much of the discussion about Las Vegas’ changing power structure has thus far focused upon who the next head coach will be, Pauline notes that there is a “groundswell” of support for interim general manager Champ Kelly to retain the GM post on a full-time basis. Kelly, a longtime Bears exec who has experience in both personnel and salary cap matters, has taken a number of GM interviews in recent years, and Davis recently admitted that Kelly might have gotten the Raiders’ GM job in 2022 if the package deal of McDaniels and Ziegler had not become available. Jones also names Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds as a candidate to monitor.
Despite Ziegler’s figurehead status in Nevada, Rapoport observes that McDaniels’ right-hand man nonetheless made strides in modernizing the personnel side of the Raiders’ operation, an effort that included hiring respected scouting minds, creating a scouting development program, and injecting “forward-thinking concepts on player development.” The next Raiders GM should therefore have something of a foundation to build upon.
Whether that person is Kelly or someone else remains to be seen, but in acknowledgment of their promotions, Davis reworked the contracts of both Kelly and Pierce, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports. Those transactions added even more money to the whopping $85MM tab that Davis will have to pick up due to the McDaniels and Ziegler firings (though some of that amount will be offset should his former employees land new jobs elsewhere).
Davis is one of the league’s most cash-poor owners, so these hugely expensive maneuvers underscore the strength of his conviction that McDaniels and Ziegler were not the right men to lead the Raiders. As Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes, Davis also fired team COO Mike Newquist, whom he hired just three months ago. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk concedes that Newquist’s post is unrelated to the football side of the team, but he believes the immediate firing of a key employee will further add to the perception of dysfunction that presently surrounds Davis’ franchise.
One way or another, Raiders fans are in for a fascinating few months.
It’s clear by now, that whatever direction Mark goes, it’ll be the wrong direction yet again. It’s like he hasn’t been involved in the league his entire life.
I don’t think the Lions or Browns were ever this dysfunctional.
I know Lions had those Millen & Patricia years along with some in between.
Browns Hue year was dysfunctional but they let him finish year. The Baker saga at the end too was handled badly.
Raiders organization needs the complete tear down. Mark must hire a football guy under him that makes all the decisions. I don’t know if Tom can be that football guy though.
oh please those organizations were total disasters for decades. the Raiders are a mess right now but they’ve been decent at times over the past few years. there’s no reason to exaggerate on the situation by comparing them to a couple teams that were that bad for that long.
How many TBs or playoff wi s do the lIons and Brown have? Come on man! To say the Lions and Browns have never been that bad. The Raiders have 5 SB appearances Since they started in 1960. Browns 1946-ZERO
Lions 1934-ZERO. GO to 5 SBs and win atleaast 3 and we can talk.
GoA’s- It’s a good thing he’s not talking about the Raiders organization in its entire lifetime, but rather the state of the franchise in this exact moment. So yes, he’s right; the 2023 Raiders are having one of the most dysfunctional periods an organization has ever had in the history of the NFL.
Apparently you have not been paying attention to the Raiders since Gannon retired.
bowserhound- Like I said, I’ll take it over the Lions who haven’t won anything since 1934. The lions greatest QB is Bobby Lane (I believe). Gannon at least came in a line of QBs for the Raiders…. LaMonica, Stabler, Plunkett, Hostetler, Gannon, Carr and now hopefully Aiden.
The Browns paid Deshaun Watson what 230+M Guaranteed… They’re currently just as dysfunctional as the Raiders.
Zeigler and McDaniels sucked.
They didn’t deserve 3 more minutes with the team
Ps Bring back Gruden
I don’t put this all on Mark. I was all for McZeig coming aboard, thinking it would add structure and discipline. Sadly McDaniels couldn’t inspire or lead, didn’t know how to cater an offense to its pieces, couldn’t evaluate talent and didn’t trust anyone but himself. The raiders need a football guy who is humble and doesn’t think they’re the smartest person in the room (like both of the last two regimes.) build from the trenches, scout and draft correctly and build incrementally.
This non-sense about unnamed coaches saying they would do things differently if they knew it was a two year job is bs. They didn’t draft for the future or sign for the future- they didn’t tear down and they didn’t build.
No coach wants to work for an owner that might fire them at any minute. The Rappoport article also claimed Davis was having dinner with players like Jacobs to ask them what was going on. No coach/manager wants that either. First thing I thought when McD got fired was now the Bears have competition for Jim Harbaugh. But why would Harbaugh want to work for Davis? The Bears have been more steady and consistent on their personnel side. Davis is getting like Irsay, got a team from daddy and now they think they’re football masterminds. They have one of the most privileged franchises in the world. STFU and let football people run it.
The Davis & Harbaugh pairing would make for great headlines though!
Plus3 If you put up poor results on the field AND lose the locker room, allowing a toxic environment to form, you should expect to be swiftly fired no matter what you were promised. McDaniels probably at least survives the season if he wasn’t both a mediocre HC and despised personality.
Sometimes a HC is so awful that the owner is forced to act. Any coach hesitant to take the job now because they know Davis won’t sit back while they set everything on fire, is just kind of dumb.
Clown Davis for the hiring, but he had to step in now.
“One executive said, “I don’t know who you’re going to convince to take those jobs. I think Mark Davis made it harder on himself,” while another added, “[i]t definitely makes the jobs less appealing.”
Hindsight is 20/20, but MD should’ve stepped in before a toxic culture existed. That’s what CEOs do. From the outside, it doesn’t matter what happened. It still looks bad.
Davis is actually completely different than his dad. He has hired football guys. Reggie MCKenzie, Jon Gruden (Mike Mayock) etc etc. I think this was the right mover for Mark Davis. The locker room was lost. He will never get it back no matter who you put in there. Remember if those emails never came out Gruden would still be the HC and was a going to be the HC for years to come. Bottom line MD made a mistake in McDaniels and cut the cord before it got worse. I’d want any owner to have the guts to do that. It was only going to get worse with MCDaniels no matter how ling you gave him.
Absolutely agree. Davis isn’t at fault for hiring Gruden – most teams would’ve. He made a mistake in hiring McDaniels, and like you said, cut the cord. Props to an owner who did the right thing. The comments about the team being dysfunctional is on the coaches. That can be corrected with the next hire.
Dumpster fire
It’s obvious that people just want to hate on anything related to the Raiders. First the talk was about how McDaniels needed to be fired immediately and now, we are hearing that doing so will hurt the team further. Things weren’t working out and a needed change was made. End of story, time to move forward with our re-discovered identity.
Not everyone is a Raider hater. Al Davis built the organization into something special…Mark destroyed all that. “The Autumn Wind” will always be a great team theme song.
The Raiders weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders for the back 9 of Al’s tenure either. Mark brought back the last successful coach we had and then he got canceled. McDaniels had returned himself into a viable head coach candidate and the allure of building something sustainable like the Patriots had was definitely something that looked good on paper. It most definitely didn’t work out and despite the financial ramifications, Mark pulled the plug on it once it was blatantly obvious it wasn’t working. I don’t think he’s ruined anything, he’s just an owner trying to find the winning formula for his franchise.
We have rediscovered our identity and now we have almost half a season to fight our way back into this thing. Can’t wait and will always be proud to be a part of Raider Nation.
Only those who are delusional try to live in the past. There is no rediscovering an identity…but learning lessons taught in the past can help create a new and better identity for the future.
The Raiders have an identity, a brand if you will. I understand what you’re saying but we clearly took a huge step away from that with McDaniels at the helm.
A- Mark Davis’ sole qualification for being an NFL owner was outliving his father.
B- As if the Raiders job wasn’t already a bottom of the barrel gig a week ago.
But there GM/HC have guaranteed contracts. Lots of articles Davis still owes a combined $85m to them!
How the F did he agree to pay them $85M more? These guys have it wrong. Coach and GM candidates will be lining up around the block or at least down the strip to take that kind of dough.
and there’s plenty of organizations that the owner did nothing to justify ownerships other than having it handed to them in a will. so what’s your point?
That is exactly my point.
Much/most of the world is run by know nothings who were handed life on a platter.
Id look at Mark Davis history. He built the raider Image. That was his thing working for the raiders and it was/is one of the best run team stores before all of this fanatics stuff. This ideas were from Mark. Also, look at his WNBA team. He’s helped get them to be the dominate team in the WNBA. Say what you will but winning any pro sports championship is hard. Yes, he’s not a football guy in the sense of his dad but he has the guts to admit that.
Progress/Evolving isn’t measured solely by Wins & Losses
God help me, I understand what Davis meant. Do I admit myself voluntarily or should my wife do it?
I think you’ll be okay. Who knew Mark Davis ranked right up there with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as one of the world’s great philosophers?
McDaniels is such a child.
Absolute nonsense. I couldn’t care less that McDaniels firing **might** make it harder to attract a new coach. I said as soon as they fired McDaniels, that they would score more with a rookie QB than they would with McDaniels/Garoppolo. And that wasn’t a shot at Garoppolo either.
The Raiders have three very good receivers, and an AP RB. 8 games without being able to score 20 points on offense is egregious.