Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce has never been one to mince words, and he apparently didn’t hold back his motives last week on the decision to fire former offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.
According to Jay Feely, who was part of the CBS broadcast crew covering the game on Sunday, Pierce was brutally honest in production meetings about why he fired Getsy.
He was trying to save his job.
“It’s been a week of change for his Raiders team,” Feely said during the broadcast.
“I give Antonio Pierce a lot of credit because it’s not easy as a first-time head coach to make a decision halfway through your first season and say ‘I’m going to fire my offensive coordinator; I’m going to fire my quarterbacks coach and my offensive line coach.’ He was pretty transparent with us. He said because I want to be wearing these colors next year and he felt like now was the time that he needed to make that move.”
Reading into those comments, it sounds like Pierce is of the opinion that if he doesn’t turn around the offense, his job could on the line. It’s not a profound statement considering the NFL is rarely patient with head coaches.
Hiring Getsy was arguably the biggest mistake of Pierce’s head coaching tenure and a comment from Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’ affirmed something that probably deserves more attention in the wake of Sunday’s game.
In just a matter of days with Turner in charge, the offense finally looked like it had the makings of an identity and there was clearly a more competent gameplan in place.
“The offensive line played maybe their best game [this week],” JT said on his weekday radio show. “I thought the offense looked noticeably better to me with Scott Turner and Norv [Turner], at least with what they were trying to do.”
It hasn’t been the hottest topic since the Raiders didn’t win the game, but the offense was noticeably better this week. Despite shaky quarterback play from Gardner Minshew at times, the offense recorded 22 first downs and totaled only 25 fewer yards than the Dolphins. The Dolphins were better on offense than the Raiders, but they also had their Pro Bowl quarterback and neither of their star wide receivers had previously quit on the team to tank with someone else.
It might not matter a lot, but Turner did an admirable job with the offense in his first week as offensive coordinator.
If the offense continues to improve, will it be enough to convince the decision-makers in the Raiders building to keep Pierce around for another year?
Based on a few recent headlines, it could be an uphill climb for Pierce to hold on to his job at the end of the season.
A report on Monday said that minority owner Tom Brady is expected to push for Mike Vrabel to coach the team next year, but there is enough time for the narratives around the season to change.
“I thought [Pierce] could definitely come back with five wins,” The Athletic’s Vic Tafur said this week on the Just Win podcast.
“The defensive injury excuse is valid [and] not getting a quarterback, that’s what we said [Pierce] needed all offseason,” he continued. “[Pierce] had to have a non-stop gap guy. That didn’t happen for him, so I just think Gardner has had more issues than they probably envisioned. And the whole Devante [Adams] thing blew up. So I think there’s definitely excuses there. But I do think five wins is the number I was looking at ‘Okay, he’s back for sure with five wins.’”
x: @raidersbeat
He needs to be fired.All the people he appointed to positions with team has failed as well as himself.
I’m just say this again. The Raiders don’t have anything to play for but who’s going to be coming back next season. 22 years of losing is unacceptable in the Raiders organization
The decision to not sign Jacob’s and go with White as well as a new zone run scheme was the foundation of our failure, Gardner is only good for play action, and handing the ball off. Our line is better with man blocking and pulling, that’s how we were built. Then with Wilkins going down plus Epps who was a leader hurt. We just need to keep our core players, go after a first RD QB and a solid seasoned back up from free agency bring AP back for another year and let’s go!!
Of course he fired them for his own future. No they should’ve never been there to begin with and that’s on AP and whoever didn’t want to give Kingsbury a 3rd yr and whoever didn’t want to trade up for J.Daniels and whoever thought Minshew was a starting NFL QB. All of those things aren’t all on AP. This entire fiasco could’ve been avoided by hiring Harbaugh. Then Telesco isn’t here but I’d bet J.J.McCarthy would’ve been. That falls on Mark Davis and on some level Tom Brady. Now the only way forward with a new QB after the draft has got to be with an HC/OC aka Ben Johnson. We can’t trust the new QB with AP because he will continue to punt on 4th and 2 and losing late in the game.
How can you win games or even be expected to win games with absolutely no quarterback and a very poor running attack. We got rid of Carr for Jimmy G. and we got rid of Jacobs for Zamir White who got hurt who then lost the job to Madison? Brock Bowers is a beast and Jacobi Meyers is as good as Davante Adams in my opinion. But all that said, how can you be mad at Pierce for not winning? Think about it, nation. Go Raiders!!
That’s how bad the raiders truly are,the 5 win season is the gauge to bring back a coach with 0 experience as a head coach.Its so bad I can’t stomach watching this lousy team.Last week I did yard work during the raiders game waiting for Bills vs Chiefs game to see how winning football team play.