The Raiders made an unorthodox hire in January, keeping Antonio Pierce as their head coach despite his lacking of a conventional resume for such a post. Players, most notably Maxx Crosby, stumped for Pierce; nearly a year later, however, he is on the hot seat.
Although it should be noted Pierce does not have too much to work with right now, the Raiders have lost 10 straight and have the inside track on the No. 1 overall pick due to a projected strength of schedule advantage on the 2-12 Giants. Pierce being given the chance to coach said draftee, most likely a quarterback, is far from assured. A recent report had NFL insiders split on the Las Vegas HC’s future; a subsequent offering is a bit more pessimistic.
Some around the league believe the Raiders are giving consideration to making Pierce a one-and-done (as a full-time HC, at least), according to Bovada’s Josina Anderson, who points to Tom Brady having a significant say here. Brady will indeed be heavily involved on the coaching front, per ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano.
It is unusual for a minority owner to have the kind of power Brady appears to now possess in Vegas, as Mark Davis will lean on the recently retired quarterback to lead the effort to fix the team’s signal-caller situation as well. With Brady’s role set to change how the Raiders operate, Anderson adds another interesting piece of this equation by indicating some around the league believe GM Tom Telesco is “separating himself.”
The Raiders hired Telesco shortly after they removed Pierce’s interim tag, and Davis said last week the franchise does not view the two as a package deal. That makes matters interesting, as GMs are typically given longer leashes than HCs. Telesco also has far more experience, having been the Chargers’ GM for more than 10 years.
Before hiring Telesco, Davis spoke of wanting a third power broker to join his team’s head coach and GM, which at that point had not been determined. While not holding a football ops title, Brady appears to be that third power player in Vegas. As such, Telesco’s job description will have changed less than a year into his tenure.
As for Pierce, he said (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore) his conversations with Davis have been positive and alluded to being under contract in 2025 when asked about his job security. Pierce is a historical outlier in terms of coaching paths, having been neither an NFL coordinator nor a college HC before receiving this Raiders chance. Although players have responded to the former NFL linebacker and Arizona State DC better compared to Josh McDaniels, the honeymoon period is long over. The Raiders are stumbling to their worst season since Art Shell‘s 2006 return, which produced a 2-14 record and the No. 1 overall pick.
Pierce is widely believed to have pushed for what would have been an unrealistic trade to acquire Jayden Daniels (at No. 2 overall) before the draft and has been saddled with Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell and Desmond Ridder this season. Being fired during a QB transition period for the franchise would be a tough break for Pierce, though he will have a 1 1/2-season sample size due to the interim appointment last year. The Raiders finishing 2-15 and keeping their HC would invite tremendous scrutiny, and the prospect of Brady wanting to start over at HC and QB could loom.
Residing in a division that houses the two-time defending Super Bowl champions and resurgent Broncos and Chargers teams helmed by successful coaches, the Raiders have an uphill battle to wage. The allure of an unusually prominent ownership role may well have enticed Brady to wait more than a year to be approved, and the Raiders’ 2025 offseason — particularly where the dominoes fall at quarterback, head coach and general manager — is poised to be quite interesting.
The Raiders aren’t one quarterback away from winning. That’s an awful roster. They need to admit that, trade back, & stockpile picks for this year and next. Then, they should look to draft a quarterback next offseason.
Trevor, Young, Caleb, and Maye are recent picks. They can’t all be as bad as we’re seeing. Look at the Jags, Carolina, NE, and Bears rosters for proof of that.
Absolutely absurd that Brady is essentially analyzing games and scouting for his own team at the same time.
How is an announcer scouting and you watching on TV isn’t?
Telesco is at most fault imo, the entire roster is trash with a very few bright spots.
For one thing, announcers meet with coaches and players for the teams whose games they’re announcing, and they’ve already had to limit some of Brady’s access for conflict of interest reasons. And while I think the Telesco hire was wild, he’s had one offseason with this roster and he wasn’t exactly starting from a good position. Three of the team’s last four first round picks before he got there–guys who should still be on their rookie contracts or fifth year options–are already gone. He wasn’t a great candidate, but he inherited a messy roster.
When the roster is bare, that might be the time when reaching for a QB is acceptable. Teams generally reach for QBs anyway. They took O line in 2nd and 3rd, but a TE in the top 10 doesn’t help a talent starved team. Reaching for Bo Nix or Pennix would have been understandable.
In fairness to them, Bowers is already a top 5 TE in the league and should be a cornerstone for the offense for years to come. Reaching for a QB and failing sets your team back at least 3 years if not more.
How? He’s been there for less than a year lol. He had a great draft, and Wilkins was a great fa pickup until he had a fluke injury. He’s continually brought in nobodies during the season who have been key contributors; McCormick, chaisson, Meredith, lualu. It was their second best year as far as talent acquisition in the past 20 years, and you could argue it was their best.
That the league will allow Brady to get this involved in team management and decision-making without relinquishing his commentator/ insider role (no matter how many alleged firewalls are in place) is insane. Bring back Olson and fire this Chris Collingsworth wannabe.
If Brady is making the call, then his boyfriend Rob Gronkowski, will most likely be the Raiders next HC 🙂
Is Telesco “separating himself” from Pierce or the Raiders?
Telesco separated himself from good decision making so I think that covers both.
Davante Adams lobbied for them to keep Pierce then bounced like 2 months into the sheetshow lol.
Same for Crosby. He demanded AP last offseason or be traded & was fuming about him his season.
Yeah like who saw that coming lol
If he had shown improvements in his game management this season it would be a no brainer he would be back. Unfortunately that has been far from the case.
People can say he had no effect on either side of the ball, but anyone paying attention knew Patrick Graham was a dead man walking and any week was going to get scapegoated. When AP took over the defense was ELITE, top 5 the rest of the season. Even after all the injuries this year, they’ve still been above average. The entire roster plays hard on both sides of the ball, and a lot of players on both sides of the ball have greatly improved since he took over. He’s not as bad as people make him out to be considering how bad the roster is AFTER all the injuries, but I do think he’s probably not back.
@steezy,
I havent seen many games, but Raiders really have only gotten beat badly a couple of times and have stayed within 10pts for several of the losses. I agree if a team is not playing hard that doesn’t happen. Patrick Graham runs very detailed driven schemas that take time to learn. Giants did not have the correct personnel to handle it. Outside of the injuries, there probably needed to be one more experienced person in the room with the coaches. Not to be waiting in line for a firing but just someone for AP to lean on sometimes. maybe there is, I don’t know. However, I don’t know how these media pundits or whomever really thought the Raiders were going to be a great team this year without a solid QB.
Josina Anderson has a growing catalog of apologies and “inappropriate reporting” and no one considers Dan Graziano as a top 15 or even mid tier NFL insider. Both are basically NFL click bait artist, and this is all this article is.
Also, Tom Brady has the same roll with the Raiders that he does with the Vegas Aces. I don’t recall anyone holding an issue with that. I too agree that he should not be a minority owner and announcer. huge conflict of interest.
I also wish I had made a list of everyone here who was championing for Mark Davis to hire Antonio Pierce and not make the same Rich Bisaccia error.
How many forum members actually knew who Pierce was before he showed up on Mark Davis’s radar?
It’s a simple process, upper right hand corner is a search box. Enter “Antonio Pierce” and hit search. Scroll down to January where the Raiders are interested in hiring Bill Belichick, you know because Tom Brady had input into the hiring process.
crosseyedlemon • 12 months ago
Bill Belichick: “Welcome to training camp guys, and today I’ll be teaching you how to win games using the tuck rule”.
Read the comments, there are many posters who are trashing AP now that were calling out Mark when the Titans and Falcons interviewed AP for their head coach position. A lot of “no brainer” this is “The Best Move” post when AP was hired.