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Paul Gutierrez, ESPN Staff Writer
HENDERSON, Nev. — Mark Davis has a choice to make. Unless the Las Vegas Raiders owner has already made it.
It’s also one he’s had to make three times since taking over the day-to-day operations of the team since his father Al Davis passed away in October 2011 — stick with the loveable, huggable, locker room favorite interim coach (Tony Sparano, Rich Bisaccia and now Antonio Pierce) — or shoot for the moon with a more established and experienced head coach (Jack Del Rio and Josh McDaniels).
Pierce still has one game remaining to update his resume, Sunday at Allegiant Stadium against the Denver Broncos (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox), and he has a backer in the Raiders’ most high-profile player. Or did you miss All-Pro receiver Davante Adams saying he would “run through a wall for that man” earlier this season?
“I mean, it’s obviously who I want, that’s my vote, and I’ve been vocal about that and that’s basically how the whole locker room feels and with good reason,” Adams said this week. “I mean, he’s come in and done a great job and he’s continued to win us over. It’s not just the comfortable thing; I think having A.P. here … it will be good for this organization. He kind of embodies what it means to be a Raider and that mentality, that swag and all the things that he endorses is the things that I believe in.
“So it’s easy for a guy like me, especially having dealt with him a little bit this year now and gotten to know him and see his evolution in front of the team and all those things, all the different fields of being a head coach. So [I’m] definitely rooting for him.”
Pierce appreciates the support.
“You earn respect, right? It’s not given,” Pierce said. “And obviously, I’m still in that process of earning their respect and at the end of the day, like I said, they’ll show, and I’ll show, what we do on the grass. That’s the bottom line. That’s what we’re all being evaluated on — what we do on Sundays, on game day … and we’ll let the chips fall where they fall.”
Indeed, passionate cases can be made for both hiring Pierce full-time and moving on ….
Why the Raiders could stick with Pierce
Passion for the job/franchise: Pierce grew up a Raiders fan, a Los Angeles Raiders fan, in Compton, California, and immediately impressed Davis with his knowledge of the team’s history and culture. Those things mean a lot to the owner.
Pierce then impressed the locker room and fan base with how he immediately proceeded to change the culture, from his shoutout to seminal rap group “N.W.A.”, to his practice music playlist to bringing back the Friday pre-practice dance-off to a mini-basketball hoop in the locker room to celebratory cigars after wins.
It was a much looser atmosphere than it had been under McDaniels and it just felt … Raider-like. The players, as right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor said, “love playing” for Pierce and interim general manager Champ Kelly, who is also vying for a full-time job.
You could have said the same thing two years ago regarding Bisaccia, and Davis has to regret not taking the temperature of the locker room before going from the warm and fuzzy Bisaccia to the calculated and detached McDaniels, who was seen as an X’s and O’s mastermind. There’s a reason not a single player attended McDaniels’ introductory presser. Moving on from Pierce might generate a similar response.
Defensive excellence: It was curious when Pierce was elevated from linebackers coach over defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. Yet the defense has excelled with Pierce in his new role and Graham remaining in the lab. In fact, you might say the defense has been borderline elite since Pierce began running the whole show.
Remember, Davis told ESPN.com when he announced Pierce’s elevation that he did not necessarily want Pierce to “coach” the team so much as “lead” it, that he wanted Pierce to “delegate” to the coordinators and coaches. Check. And then some.
Consider: since Pierce’s Halloween night promotion, Las Vegas ranks first in the NFL in points per game allowed (16.3) and defensive touchdowns scored (4), tied for first in fewest penalties committed (31), tied for ninth in sacks (25) and tied for 10th in takeaways (13). Maintain the defense, fix the offense and Pierce and the Raiders could be cooking with gas in 2024.
The Raiders have been competitive since Pierce took over: Pierce, who played linebacker in the NFL for nine seasons, was named to a Pro Bowl and won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants, is the first to say he should be judged on what the product looks like on the field. And while going 4-4 may not evoke memories of John Madden or Tom Flores, the Raiders have a plus-49 point differential (fourth in the NFL) and been in every game since Pierce took over. Yes, even in losses at Miami and at home to the Chiefs, where they had a 14-0 lead before being outscored 31-3.
In fact, any semblance of competent quarterback play in the 3-0 loss to the Vikings and in the first half this past Sunday against the Colts and the Raiders would have had two more wins and be in the thick of the playoff hunt. But, as the company mantra goes, Just win, baby, right? It’s not, “Just keep it competitive and cover the point spread, baby.”
Still, what Pierce has done in terms of winning with an incomplete roster is more than admirable. So imagine what he might accomplish with a full offseason as he continues to grow into the job and the Raiders can build around him.
Reasons the Raiders might move on
Game management is occasionally suspect: It’s not about whether Pierce deserves the job, just ask Bisaccia and Co., who steered the Raiders through so many rocky seas in 2021 and still got Las Vegas into the postseason for only the second time since 2002. It’s about what Davis prefers in his next head coach.
Then, he wanted an X’s and O’s coach. Now? Bisaccia’s lack of game-managing experience hurt him, and it might harm Pierce’s candidacy as well. There have been a few instances where Pierce’s clock management skills left something to be desired, as well as when to take a timeout late in a half.
Late in the first half of the game at Miami in Week 11, Pierce’s first-ever road game as an NFL head coach, the Raiders trailed the Dolphins 14-10 and got the ball with at the 25-yard line with two timeouts and the two-minute warning. Rather than be aggressive, Pierce, who had never been a head coach at a level higher than high school (Long Beach (Calif.) Poly), said he had to “protect the young quarterback” and ran the ball three times and punted after picking up just seven yards.
On-the-job training for one of 32 top football coaching jobs in the world is a luxury that Davis may not have the patience for in an environment where the Raiders are seemingly always in rebuild mode more than reloading.
Can Pierce make tough personnel decisions? One of Al Davis’ concerns for his son taking over the team was how close he was to certain players, that a tough decision might be clouded by personal feelings. Might that have happened with Pierce and rookie QB Aidan O’Connell, whom Pierce referred to as his “BFF” more than once?
Pierce hitched his wagon to the fourth-rounder when he was promoted — no doubt Davis had to give his blessing to bench $72.75 million vet Jimmy Garoppolo — and, as noted before, any semblance of competent QB play against the Vikings and Colts would have the Raiders in the thick of the playoff race.
Maybe it’s a mulligan, maybe not, but Pierce sticking with O’Connell — who has a QBR of 36.0 and has had three games with a 20.7 or lower QBR since Pierce took over — might not have been the flex many hoped for at the time. Especially if it cost the Raiders a game or two at the expense of trying to figure out if O’Connell was the future of the franchise or not.
While Garoppolo struggled in six games prior to Pierce’s promotion (a 35.3 QBR and a league-leading nine interceptions at the time of his benching), could he have sparked the team in games which O’Connell struggled? Based on his record as an NFL starter (43-20), it’s a legitimate question to ask.
There might be more enticing options available: What if Jim Harbaugh, fresh off taking Michigan to the College Football Playoff national championship game, decides he wants back in the NFL? And, given his recent hire of agent Don Yee — who also represents Tom Brady, now one of Davis’ closest confidants and a potential minority owner of the Raiders — could Harbaugh decide he wants in on Las Vegas? Given Harbaugh’s winning track record at Michigan (85-25 in nine seasons) and in the NFL (49-22-1 with the 49ers in four, including an NFC championship) and his history with the franchise — his coaching career began with the Raiders in 2002 — how could Davis not be enamored?
And what about Jon Gruden? Davis never truly wanted to part ways with him in the wake of his email scandal and Gruden will have his day in court next week to see if his suit against the NFL claiming his electronic missives were selectively leaked by the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell will go to trial. As Gruden’s lawyer said in court in May 2022, Gruden would drop his lawsuit if he got his job back with the Raiders.
Both have that valuable experience which missing from Pierce’s resume. But no matter what, Davis is compelled to interview at least two external candidates who are minorities (Pierce and Graham, who are Black, don’t factor in because they are already in the organization) to abide by the NFL’s Rooney Rule.
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