For the third time in a little more than three years, the Raiders have a new head coach in the building and based on reports around the team, the Pete Carroll era in Las Vegas is off to an encouraging start.
Carroll replaced former head coach Antonio Pierce in January and the decision to move on from Pierce was a surprise to some.
Not a lot has been said about why the Raiders fired Pierce, but Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter has hinted on a few occasions to what he believes led Mark Davis to make the decision.
“There were discipline issues on [the 2024 team],” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast this week. “Where the team was not as disciplined in 2024 as they were in 2023. That is factual. And people in the program made that very clear to me.”
Earlier in the offseason, Hondo added a more details around the 2024 season that probably hurt Pierce in his efforts to keep his job.
“They felt like Antonio Pierce was hurt at times by not having experience, even at the coordinator level in the NFL. He had some very wise and good counsel around him, so it was baffling to some about decisions that were made. Again, that’s not piling on Antonio Pierce at all. That’s just the reality of the mood,” Carpenter said in January.
“[There were] a lot of people, both locker room and outside of the locker room, that felt like the discipline and the things that got him the job in 2023 maybe were not his present in 2024 and felt that hurt him.”
Mistakes were made by Pierce and the coaching staff in 2024, but there were also factors outside of his control. Davante Adams quit on the team in October, and a barrage of injuries transformed the roster by the end the year.
To the credit of everyone involved, the players played hard for Pierce, but there was enough decline in other areas for Tom Brady and Mark Davis to question the direction the team was headed under Pierce.
Pierce ended his head coaching tenure in Las Vegas with a 9-17 record, and that was a game worse in the loss column than his predecessor, Josh McDaniels (9-16).
Something that never happened after Pierce’s departure, though, were the negative storylines around his tenure with the Raiders. The team may have lost discipline after the interim tag was removed from Pierce’s job title, but it seems the players and coaches always respected him as a coach and a former player.
And to Pierce’s credit, he has been laying low since he left his post in Las Vegas. He hasn’t bad-mouthed the organization or even shared his side of the story on the way things went down in his final season with the Raiders.
x: @raidersbeat
And this is why Hondo is a lying sack of crap. AP CALLED out Jack Jones when he took a business decision and responded.
The team playing hard is a sign of discipline. Again AP didn’t get the OC he wanted and was stuck when Washington wouldn’t trade Jayden Daniels to Telesco.
Plus, does Mark/Hondo not realize what damage Patriot West did to the organization? Tyree/Meyers are busts. Davante was a horrible trade, & then you got Aiden as your QB who was one of the worst in the league. Blaming AP for “discipline” when your team blows talent wise is quite hilarious
Bad story
The last part of your comment is off the mark. Meyers is a bust?? Do you mean Mayer? And calling those dudes busts is premature. Also, O’Connell was not drafted to be the “answer”. That draft pick is not a miss. He will make a solid backup QB. That’s where those guys get drafted.
And AP was a horrible coach. It was a gamble from the beginning seeing as he had nearly ZERO qualifications for the job. We are in a much (MUCH) better position now.
Exactly right. The thing is…. Making excuses or pining for former coaches only holds up so far when we can see how the rest of the league values these guys. Even Bisacchia, who was a far better coach than AP, IMO, never got a serious look for another HC gig. Neither will AP. I doubt AP will ever even be a coordinator at the NF L level.
And AOC is absolutely a draft hit given where he was taken. We all hoped he might be a quality starter, but that would have been way above reasonable expectations. Can he be a good backup? Yes. If Geno needs to miss a couple of games, can the Raiders feel OK with AOC trying to hold down the fort? I believe so. That’s a good 4th round pick! Yes, some late round guys become good NFL QBs, but as a team building strategy, you can’t count on that. That’s mostly luck. A player who is overlooked for some reason, and that’s getting harder with teams all having access to the same data. By all means, take your shots at developmental QBs in the latter rounds, just don’t expect a miracle. Not all 1st round QBs work out, but if you’re looking for a starter, that’s where you have to invest the resources.
Did DA quit on the Raiders or did the organization quit on him? McDaniels set the franchise back several years with one bone headed move after another. That entire fiasco is on one person only, Mark Davis. I was fine with giving AP a chance until Jim Harbaugh became a candidate that year. This year it should’ve been Ben Johnson and Robert Salah as the HC/OC & DC. That falls on Mark Davis again. Allowing Brady to bring in a long time friend/ acquaintance as GM isn’t a great look. The hodgepodge coaching staff will be interesting at least. Carroll bringing in his son, again isn’t a great look. The draft was full of over reaches with wing and a prayer mentality. We will see if Geno outperforms J.Milroe over the course of the next 4 years since that is who Seattle selected with the pick. Jeanty has a bar of 1500+ rushing yards, 500+ rec yards and 10+ TDs. That’s what is expected for a top 10 RB. Bech better be a starter on day one and have a minimum of 900 rec yards and 6 TDs. Trade J.Meyers as soon as Bech/Thorton gets up to speed. He’s worth at least a 4th.
You are all over the place. First off, Pierce was dealt his death blow once Telesco decided they were going to stiff Josh Jacobs, which doomed Pierce’s plan to be a physical run first offense. Then to top it off we had the worst QB situation in football which led to Davante Adams wanting to get as far away from there as he could. The seasonnwas over long before it started thanks to Mark Davis and Dumb Telesco.
Here’s a hint of why AP was fired: He couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag, he was massively over matched by virtually every HC he faced. The game day decision making was at a bad high school level.
1 year as a head Coach and u didn’t get the guys he wanted.. What did u expect and now Pete gets to have dam near a new team.. Make it make sense….
It doesn’t matter who he wanted, he was unqualified and not at all ready to be HC and his constant horrible game day decisions proved it.
AP made the biggest mistake by letting Telesco talk him into starting Min-**** because of the contract Telesco gave him. Never let the GM dictate the roster on game days. AP tried the “I’m cool with it” HC that lead to his firing. Word has it that Telesco and AP banged heads big time and that’s why their both gone!
AP was only hired bc the Owner was trying to undo the mistake of not retaining Bissachia, the last interim HC. Mistake#1- don’t let the players dictate who the coach will be! AP wasn’t qualified to be the HC. There were mistakes made by, both, AP and the GM and that’s why both weren’t retained! Bottom line, the team was horrible.