One of the many areas the Las Vegas Raiders will have to address this offseason is the head coach, as Antonio Pierce figures to be on the hot seat after an abysmal showing from his team in the first full year on the job.
Pierce earned the full-time gig after serving as the interim head coach in 2023. The Raiders looked like a totally different team under Pierce than fired head coach Josh McDaniels last season and finished with a 5-4 mark under him.
However, things have changed drastically in 2024. There were plenty of factors involved in the Raiders' poor season, but Pierce and his staff routinely made head-scratching decisions that no doubt made things harder. And, in turn, it has made it hard to trust the future of this franchise with Pierce.
As the Raiders mull the future, Bovada's Josina Anderson is reporting that the team is indeed thinking about making a change at head coach. She also adds that general manager Tom Telesco may be "separating himself" from Pierce behind the scenes.
“As tough as it is to hear, there are league sources who believe based on their own high-level back-table conversations that the Raiders are currently entertaining the idea of getting a new head coach, while general manager Tom Telesco is simultaneously separating himself behind the scenes,” Anderson wrote.
There has been a sense that Telesco is safer than Pierce, partly because he had a solid first draft with the Raiders. But comments made by owner Mark Davis are also leading people to believe that Telesco could stay if Pierce is fired.
When asked about Pierce, Davis declined to discuss his future, although he did like the way the team was fighting.
“I don’t even want to talk about that right now,” Davis said of Pierce’s future, per Tashan Reed of The Athletic. “We’re still playing through the season.”
“The one thing that this team has done is they’ve fought hard,” Davis added. “In every game, they’re fighting hard. That’s something that you don’t find all the time when things aren’t as good as you want them to be. That’s a positive, the way that this team has responded.”
When asked about the team's plans at quarterback, Davis said, "you'd have to talk to Tom Telesco about that," which indicates Telesco is definitely part of the team's plans moving forward. Davis also made sure to note that Pierce and Telesco aren't tied to one another.
“They didn’t come in as a team,” Davis said about Pierce and Telesco. “They are individuals.”
With what we've seen from Pierce this season, and with the Raiders set to begin a new chapter, assuming they can get their franchise quarterback in the draft, Las Vegas should go in a different direction at head coach in 2025.
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