When Antonio Piece was fired by the Raiders on January 7, it was the first domino to fall in what has been a dramatic start to the offseason – even by Raider standards.
There were rumors that Pierce might have done enough to keep his job, but with Tom Brady now in the mix in Las Vegas, there might have been a little less patience in the building for the first-year head coach.
There hasn’t been a lot reported on how the Raiders reached the decision to fire Pierce, but Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter dropped a little nugget on the matter this week.
According to Carpenter, there were concerns within the organization around the level of discipline among players compared to a year ago.
“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 on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast this week.
“That there was 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.”
There were mistakes made by Pierce and the coaching staff, but there were also factors outside of his control working against the Raiders this year.
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 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).
Now for the fourth time since 2021, the Raiders are hitting the reset button at head coach and the precedent has been set for Pete Carroll.
Nine wins and 16 or more losses will be the mark to avoid.
x: @raidersbeat
Pierce getting a second full year under his belt coaching the Raiders hopefully with another solid draft and less injuries but people within the organization realized there were too many avoidable mistakes made by him. Rumors had it there were people there only for a paycheck due to Pierce not leaning on his support …
Better luck this year with Carrol.
The main problem that I see is what mark davis created. He had an in house GM with limited experience in Bailey. No he had to bring in failed deer in headlights Telesco. Let’s dump jacobs too expensive, let’s bring in Minshew he’s a winner. Let’s overpay Christian 100 million dollar contract and he gets hurt. Now look at what if hind sight. Raiders gave jacobs his money. Minshew was never brought on period. We had a chance to get Justin fields. And like coach AP wanted Daniels really really bad deer boy would have found a way to get Daniels. Adams would still be a Raider and I’m almost positive we would have won a pile of games. Sorry coach pierce good luck you will prevail. Oh Telesco, Burger King is hiring 🍔
Thanks for saying that, I agree
Washington was not trading that pick no way no how, they needed a qb too
Don’t forget about Kingsbury not being hired. It would’ve took 3-1s, 3-2s at minimum. If it was that much it would’ve been too much. Obviously we will never know for certain since according to some Coupon Tom didn’t extend an offer. I’ve wondered if they should’ve attempted to poach Baker from TB. Although Fields with Kingsbury as OC might have worked.
I’m not sure how people don’t grasp the concept that to trade for a pick or a player the other team has to be willing to trade. I mean are you giving 10 first round picks in a row to draft ANY player.? Then you end up with a talentless roster around said player and ruin their career. Washington wasn’t giving that pick up. I wish people could comprehend that
Kernel Saunders, okay so Washington never wanted to trade. Do you think there were other options other than Mustache Minshew? Absolutely so, fields would have been an option or even trading for Hendon hooker. Hard to bring down a dual threat qb he’s a runner. He possesses 2 things Minshew doesn’t. A big arm and an ability to run. Hooker doesn’t possess the one trait that Minshew has, INTERCEPTIONS case closed.
A couple of thoughts on why AP got fired is probably because AP took over TB’s best buddy in Josh Mcfailure. He didn’t like the fact that AP brought up the 2 Super Bowl wins against TB. The Pete Carroll thing sounds great, BUT, it also sounds like a Biden 2.0. Hence, Art Shell 2.0. Just saying, I hope Raiders will start winning over .500 again, I feel like they are cursed since the AFL NFL merger. Al Davis just found loop holes to win. Now the Raiders can’t find that loop hole. Disgruntled fan here. I apologize
Oh to add fuel to this fire, TOM TELESCO is garbage, GM should have brought in OC Kilingsbury, and Daniels. Look where they at now! Kilingsbury backed out for a reason. I wonder why? Great job GM. GREAT JOB!
If wishes were fishes we’d eat for a week. If these players can stay healthy and they find a QB that can score more than one touchdown the raiders might make the playoffs. Need a O-line.
Nah, thats too hard, some people don’t know how to fish.
Discipline and bad calls by AP. AP lost the locker room over his bad decision making in close games. AP was over his head. AP was clowning around way to much off the field and in the locker room. AP lost respect from the players. Pete Carroll will be respected.
Difference between AP & McDonalds is that McD inherited a playoff team where AP inherited Patriot West screwups: Jones, Glass, Tyree, Mayer, Davante
Team has worse quarterback play & lesser talent. AP/Telesco were trying to fix it
Tom Telesco is the one who screwed up the team. Instead of making the team better he made it worse. Especially when he brought Minshew into the team, then letting good players go to other teams. AP just went along with the program and everyone is trying to throw all the blame on him. Mark Davis and Tom Brady knew that AP needed help getting good coaches and the screwed around and let some good coached walk away to other teams that made the playoffs. So Tom Telesco and the front office should be held responsible for the actions of the team.