The honeymoon is over for Antonio Pierce as a head coach in the NFL, but two insiders for The Athletic believe he’ll hold onto his job after the season.
Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed wrote a column on Thursday and offered five predictions for the second half of the season.
Most of their predictions weren’t giant leaps, but their confidence in Pierce might be a little more than most have at the moment.
Here’s what Tafur and Reed wrote about Pierce and his standing with Raiders owner Mark Davis…
“As the Raiders’ season has gone off the rails, speculation about Pierce’s job security has intensified. His in-game decision-making has been heavily criticized, and the coaching staff hasn’t been able to find any consistent success. But owner Mark Davis isn’t itching to make his third coaching change in three years. He hoped the Raiders would be more competitive, but he knew Pierce was inexperienced and would endure growing pains…
Pierce maintains a strong hold on the locker room. Two of his most ardent supporters during his nine-game tenure as interim coach last season — Davante Adams (publicly at least) and Josh Jacobs — play for other teams now, but defensive end Maxx Crosby and many other players who were on the team last year remain.
Also, the Raiders have been battered by injuries. Four starters are on injured reserve — O’Connell, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, defensive end Malcolm Koonce and safety Marcus Epps — and multiple others have missed significant time. This was already a thin roster, and they don’t have the depth to account for those absences.
Davis is trying to be patient with Pierce. He still wants to see improvement this year — as evidenced by the recent firings — but it would take a disastrous finish to the season for Pierce to get canned after Year 1.”
For what it’s worth, the biggest challenge facing Pierce and his coaching staff after the season might be the addition of Tom Brady.
Davis would probably like to give Pierce another year, but some believe Brady is going to want one of his own guys on the sideline.
Bill Belichick has been mentioned as a potential head coaching option for the Raiders, but former Titans HC Mike Vrabel might be the more realistic option. Belichick is 72 years-old and Vrabel is probably going to get as much interest (or even more) from teams looking for a head coach after the season.
As far as Tafur and Reed predicting Pierce will keep his job, it was a fun exercise but everyone knows the second half of the season is going to determine Pierce’s fate.
Another strong finish and ownership won’t have any choice but to keep him.
But if the second half of the season looks anything like the first half, it could be another adventurous offseason coming for the Raiders.
x: @raidersbeat
Why is nobody mentioning the GM and his job security? It is the GM that put this team together for this season. I hope everyone knew that o-line was going to be weak. It is the offensive line that has been the cause of a lot of the problems we have. I think the play calling was below standard.
Yes we also have faiked at in-game adjustments but I believe the finger has been pointed in directions too emphatically. The coaching decisions are not necessarily on Pierce as let us remember the Raiders had Kingsbury just about signed but someone (and I highly doubt it was Pierce’s doing) majorly screwed that up which led to Getsy coming aboard. Getsy should not have been an option so whoever was responsible for that needs to seek alternate employment.
I said prior to season that if the Raiders offense plays mediocre then this team could do some damage. As it tuens out our offense has stank up the league (a trend that continues.) Whoever made decision to let Jacobs walk is also in need of new employment.
Lets be real about the whole thing. The Raiders could have signed Wilson (for dirt cheap.) They could have traded for fields, could have pursued Cousins (they had the money.) Let us travel back further because the position we find our team in currently is directly upon the shoulders of one person – the WORST owner in nfl history. He has and continues to make horrific decisions and should have sold the team long, long ago.
Amen! Telesco has proven why he not only stayed so long with the Bolts but also why he got canned. Cheap when he didn’t need to be. Short sighted because he can’t see more than a few weeks into the future. No depth when injuries occur. Now AP hasn’t done himself any favors with his questionable decisions on and off the field.
First off O’Connell is not a starting qb. He will end up being a back up all his career.
Agree with Richard, Telesco is a deer in headlights. He let jacobs walk signed a waste from Minnesota. No qb, he needs to go.
The problems run deeper than a bad offense. I think the defense is overrated. Take last week’s game, they give up a TD to close the half, then another to open the 2nd have! Game over! The team has no heart. And I’ve seen several times when they give up a score following a turnover by the offense. The defense isn’t as good as they are made out to be. Bottom line, they aren’t responding to AP because they aren’t putting up a fight for 60 minutes. Why has Minshew gone from a Pro Bowl backup to playing so badly for this team???!!! The team culture is bad, and that’s always on the HC.