The Raiders made headlines early this morning when they fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler. While the midseason shakeup may have come as a surprise to some, it probably didn’t shock many of the team’s veterans.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, owner Mark Davis had meetings with veteran players over the past week to better understand the team’s culture (or lack thereof). Albert Breer of SI.com echoes that report, noting that Davis was well aware of the players’ grievances. Even before the recent meetings, the firing started to feel “inevitable” within the organization, according to Breer. Davis was becoming increasingly “volatile and angry” with the team’s inconsistencies, and that ultimately led to his decision.
McDaniels was also aware of the problems in his locker room. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports that the coach allowed players to raise their issues during a team meeting last week. Josh Jacobs, Maxx Crosby, and Davante Adams were among the veteran players who spoke up, with the latter also expressing his discontent following Monday’s loss to the Lions.
Breer has more details on what led to the eventual firings. There was a “particularly aggressive” postgame meeting between Davis and his staff after the Raiders beat the Packers in Week 5. Despite the win, the owner caught the attention of many because he was “so angry,” and his “reaction created an uneasy feeling” with coaches and scouts.
More notes out of Las Vegas…
- The “disconnect” between Davis and McDaniels/Ziegler surrounding the Raiders quarterback situation played a major role in the dismissals, according to Dianna Russini, Vic Tafur, Tashan Reed, and Larry Holder of The Athletic. The decision that played the most significant role in the firings was when veteran Brian Hoyer started over rookie Aidan O’Connell in Week 7. Breer provided more context on that decision, noting that the Raiders believed Hoyer’s veteran game management would be advantageous against the Bears, who were rolling with a rookie of their own. Some coaches believed that O’Connell should get the call, and Hoyer proceeded to throw a pair of interceptions in an eventual loss.
- According to Tafur, Davis had issues with Ziegler’s handling of the position before this season. The owner wasn’t a proponent of the extension that the GM gave to Derek Carr, and the accompanying no-trade clause meant the organization ultimately let the franchise quarterback walk without receiving any compensation. Ziegler didn’t do himself any favors by handing Jimmy Garoppolo $33MM in guaranteed money. The oft-injured QB later failed his physical and ultimately required surgery, and he’s proceeded to toss nine interceptions in his six games. The GM also might regret his decision to not target a rookie and spend the money elsewhere; per Tafur, the Raiders only liked Bryce Young heading into the draft.
- Davis will now have a difficult choice to make on Garoppolo, and it goes beyond the decision to start O’Connell in Week 9. As Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com writes, it makes most sense for the organization to cut the veteran QB as soon as possible. Garoppolo has $11.25MM in injury guarantees that are due in March of 2024. The team could cut him after the Super Bowl and before the guarantee vests, but they’d be risking the QB suffering an injury during an upcoming game or practice.
- Tom Brady isn’t yet an official part-owner of the Raiders, but the future Hall of Famer will be involved in the HC and GM hiring process, according to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. Of course, Brady has a relationship with both McDaniels and Ziegler, with the trio having won many Super Bowls together during their time in New England.
Mess of a franchise.
You have to wonder why Brady would want an ownership share in this clusterf–k. Has he suffered concussions we don’t know about? When did he last submit to a drug test?
You’re questioning why someone would want part ownership of an NFL franchise? And one that is in Las Vegas? I get that the Raiders are ugly right now, but there are only 32 of these entities.
And, Brady has a desire to be involved in the management of a franchise and this gets him in the door.
Also, if he can help turn things around, he’s a hero. If not, no damage to his legacy.
All true points, minus the fact that Brady wouldn’t hesitate to recommend McDaniels if he weren’t just fired from this situation. He and Brady won a lot of games together, and he was present for most of Brady’s best years. Having Brady involved is mostly for having a name; I don’t know how much he adds to finding a head staff because it’s a much different task than what he excelled at for years.
Would he though? Brady is no idiot – I think he knows skinning the Pat’s alive doesn’t work (and that HE was what made them work).
You know I agree with you 100% DarkSide! Tom kept winning 3 years in a row w/o Bill; while Bill went sub .500 on his solo tour…hmmm?
Yes, I think that he would, if some other team called and asked (or in a hypothetical where the Raiders have fired some other coach and were looking at McDaniels). Of course, this is just my own speculation, and I easily could be wrong. You have to consider how long Brady and McDaniels spent as cohorts. It’s way longer than most teams have had their staffs. McDaniels spent a total of twelve years, in two stints, as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator. That’s as long as Mark Davis has owned the Raiders franchise. Beyond that, McDaniels spent three additional years in other capacities with the Pats. In that time, Brady won six championships and set the record for the most passing touchdowns in history in a single season, which stood until Manning retook it some time later. The Pats also went nearly undefeated. Brady won two of his three MVPs with McDaniels as his offensive coordinator. Of all of Brady’s success, most of it came with McDaniels as his coach.
If we ask Brady which person helped him the most in his professional career, McDaniels is probably a strong contender. I don’t know how Brady operates as a non-football player, but I wouldn’t expect him to say that McDaniels is a bad coach due to the success that they had together. I don’t endorse this view myself, obviously, but people’s personal experiences will always outweigh outside sources’ knowledge.
All fair points until you remember this very large fact about Josh & his ability to judge QB’s.
From google: When Josh McDaniels was starting his second year as head coach in Denver, he traded the Broncos’ second, third, and fourth-round picks in the 2010 draft to Baltimore in order to select Tim Tebow 25th overall in the first round.
Oh, I agree, he’s terrible. I just think that Brady likely has a higher opinion of him than we do, which I could see the reason for.
He also may realize McDaniels as an OC is ok. But not as a HC
Lmao
I’m sure the league will figure out a way for Tom to become a minority owner. I think it’s a long term play to get rid of Mark. Maybe 5-7 year timeframe?
Step 1, get a big time face of the league into a visible spot in a hugely marketable franchise.
Step 2, more famous people and athletes will buy in.
Step 3, Davis will (have to) sell (for some reason) and be well set financially.
They’ll roll out the discrimination harassment hostile work environment series of allegations and that’s what they’ll use to force him to sell, that’s the move these days
carlos15 might be just as cynical as I am…and I haven’t yet decided if that’s a good thing or not. lol.
Now I see why Raiders fans want Davis to sell.
It’s not like McDaniels or Ziegler did anything to solidify their position. McDaniels was a mistake to begin with. Davis simply righted his wrong.
They definitely were mistakes, but it’s hard to say that Davis shouldn’t have known better. I suppose that one could make an argument that McDaniels could have learned from his Broncos affair (which was terrible not just from results on the field, but from his personal behavior), but his reneging on the Colts in his second chance (after hiring a staff!) should have sent some signals.
Davis also is way too involved (ironically like Irsay of the Colts) in his quarterback decisions. He hated the Carr extension, but Carr is by far the best quarterback that the Raiders have had in decades. He forced him out, and then was upset that his team signed a veteran to start in his place. What did he want to happen? He seems obsessed with the idea of finding a wunderkind rookie to take over, even if that rookie isn’t the guy.
Aiden O’Connell exemplifies this. He’s not a good quarterback, I’m sorry to say. The article neglects to mention that, while Hoyer threw two picks, O’Connell threw another himself in the Bears game when he came in. In both games that O’Connell got action in, he looked more lost than Hoyer did. None of the Raiders QBs looked good, but I can say that Hoyer probably had the least help from his supporting cast. There were a ton of dropped passes, bad blocks, and mid-run routes that sank Las Vegas in that game. So I don’t blame the coaching staff for feeling that Hoyer offered them a better chance than O’Connell, even if I blame them for the situation in general by fielding an awful team around him and having terrible morale/discipline.
So McDaniels shouldn’t have ever been hired, I agree. But Mark Davis should have known this. I mean, we knew it, and he’s privy to far more information than any of us are. And Davis hired a GM to handle QB decisions. Meddling in that is going to impede whatever they do and turn off future hires in that area. It’s one thing for an owner to offer an opinion; it gets to be a problem when the owner starts to do the GM’s job for him. For as badly as this staff performed, they were right about needing a veteran quarterback right now. The Raiders don’t have someone who can be a franchise player. Retaining Carr or signing Garappolo until they get that player is not a stupid decision. So, unless Davis was demanding a tank job (odd if he was volatile and angry over the team’s performance-unless he was mad that they were winning, which is despicable), he should have recognized that.
McDaniels isn’t head coach material just an OC
Hard to judge him as an OC w/o having Tom throwing it. Similar to Nathiel Hackett. He looked like a stud OC when Aaron was his QB. Looked completely lost with Russ and Zach under center.
True, I agree with that. But I will give him credit for getting more out of that Cam Newton offense than I expected by adapting to Newton’s lone remaining strength-the run game. That team had no receivers and no passing threat at the QB position, and McDaniels changed the offense to try and score touchdowns, which it did somehow.
Brady also had many of his best years with McDaniels involved in the offense. So, even though I would hesitate to endorse him as a playcaller and I would NEVER do so as a decision maker, I would give him some credit for helping Brady. That partnership worked-perhaps because Brady had enough discipline and gravitas to have say on and off the field. On top of that, Belichick was firmly in charge of the team, so McDaniels didn’t have as much say, even though I don’t doubt that Brady and Belichick respected his input. The guy has the ability to draw up plays. Everything else-literally everything else-seems to be a major issue. And even then, he’s too committed to what he thinks to adapt ro what he has. He has the ability to, as exemplified by the Pats’ Newton experience. But if he’s in charge? Nope, the problem is with the player, not the coach.
You’d think that his Broncos experience would have taught him something about player management. For me, the problem is much more with his personality and philosophy than my rating of his scheming ability. That issue is so impactful, though, that if I think that it should deter any employee from hiring him on. There’s only one place where McDaniels worked (because he wasn’t charge), and it’s changed a lot since he was last effective.
I’m am so interested to see if there is a stat of % audibles called by Brady during McDaniel’s OC run in NE.
The Raiders make me happy to be a Bears fan.
How many chances does Mcdaniels get! Hopefully teams understand now that he’s just an average OC at best. And Jimmy G is and always will be a game manager and will only succeed if his team is loaded with talent.
The offensive talent is the brightest spot on the roster. Jimmy G should try throwing the ball to his own team.
Letting the players run the team is not the mark of a good owner. Wait until they complain about the next guy, what then…
Exactly, better to make them continue to suffer under incompetent failing management so they know their place.
Slight off-topic comment regarding the Belichick coaching tree ‘failures’. My take is Coach Belichick teaches coaching, not Admin. Many of the players who he once coached have succeeded in the coaching industry after retiring from their playing careers. The owners believe that by hiring Belichick’s coaches and assistants, they can achieve similar success for their team. They are oblivious that Belichick silos many of his techniques to himself on the admin side, similar to team info at a news conference.
Davis should have known better than to hire Josh McDaniels. McDaniels had already left a trail of smashed franchises behind him when the Raiders hired him as head coach. The lack of charisma and leadership is obvious from just looking at the sidelines.
McDaniels must be a reasonable offensive mind but he’s not suite to be a head coach.
As a fan of pro football, longer than Brady or Mark Davis has been alive, I’d not put too much confidence that Tom Brady is an evaluator of players or coaches. Brady played a good game for a coach while both were on top of their game and he understood the scheme and operated within given parameters.
Mark Davis is / has been getting advice in the wrong ‘advice store’. Not sure how he sold the idea of his team being a boon to Vegas but I’d say that’s the best decision he’s made as the controlling ‘owner’. Bringing in Brady’s money might be a good idea but is that Brady wanting to mimic Elway and make himself GM?
Firing McDaniels is also a good move though in the midst of a season might just bite the Raiders though it will allow some evaluations – if there’s anyone in the team hierarchy that can manage that chore and I’ve doubts.
Hoyer brings experience and is a decent backup and part time starter but O’Connell didn’t handle his game experience against the Chargers very well.
Raiders basic misery is ‘lack of continuity’, a piss poor o-line and mediocre DBs. Add to that Mark Davis’ emotional interferences and can’t imagine any top level coach / GM that’d want to be onboard, though money does what money does – either makes you look good or drags you down.