Is Antonio Pierce down to his final days as head coach of the Raiders?
A report on Tuesday suggested that Raiders minority owner Tom Brady might be looking to replace Pierce with Mike Vrabel, and added that Pierce was not Brady’s first choice to get the full-time HC job in January.
But in order for Vrabel to get the job, Pierce has to be fired and the first-year head coach still has time to prove himself to the organization.
There are seven games left in the season and it doesn’t appear the players have quit on Pierce. The roster has been decimated by injuries, but the team still showed signs of life this week in Miami.
Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed cover the Raiders for The Athletic and they talked about Pierce’s chances of keeping his job after Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins.
“I thought [Pierce] could definitely come back with five wins,” Tafur said 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,” Tafur continued. “He 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.’”
Reed offered his opinion next and called Pierce’s chances of keeping his job essentially a coin flip.
“I think it’s 50 percent,” Reed said of his odds on Pierce keeping his job. “I think Mark Davis wants to keep him for another year.
“I do think that for all those excuses that we listed, I don’t know. I don’t really know what you except this team to do. Even if they had better coaching, I think this is a bad team, still. So, yeah, I think he gets to year two.”
Pierce might deserve another year as head coach of the Raiders, but the opinion that matters most in that discussion probably belongs to Brady.
How hard will Brady push to bring in the head coach he wants and do we definitely know who that head coach would be?
Answers are coming soon.
x: @raidersbeat
Yeh
I definitely think that the coach need another year before all hell breaks loose
It doesn’t matter who’s the coach. The season for the Raiders is over. Just guys playing to stay in Los Vegas. This is 22 years of losing. It’s never going to stop. It doesn’t matter what good a practice you have. It just doesn’t continue come game time.
I think Tashan Reed is excellent, and we’re lucky to have him on the beat, but… The problem with the, “what did you expect from this team,” line of defense for AP is that the organization made their expectations very clear in the offseason. It was to compete for a playoff spot. That wasn’t the rest of the league, or the fans, setting those expectations. It definitely wasn’t the more serious members of NFL media, who took no end of ridicule for their “disrespect” of the Raiders chances. It was the team itself.
So either AP greatly overrated his roster (a bad look), or he knew better and was telling Mark Davis what he wanted to hear (also a bad look). Injuries are a valid excuse. Losing Davante Adams is not. Ultimately, what has AP done to demonstrate he can be the guy to turn things around? If the Raiders fire him, would he ever be a serious HC candidate for another team. Those are the questions I think are most important.
you can’t win without a good qb. the aformentioned injuries has decimated the defence & that’s a valid excuse. vince lombardi couldn’t win with this bunch. team needs a qb & some tweaking.
I think he deserves a chance for another year. But give him something to work with. They let Jacobs go he has more rushing yards this year than the whole Raiders team Jacobs 762 yds so far Raiders total offense has 692 yds. The team has not had any type of steady coaching. They been dragged thru different systems quite a few times. It’s possible the Luke hiring was part of Davante Adams wishes since they were together in Green Bay. If Brady had any input with the McDaniels hiring, we saw how that worked out too.
No, I don’t buy the injury thing, many teams have injury, weak sauce. AP is in over his head, learning and failing on the job, his decision making has cost us games this season and it was ridiculous to choose a HC because “the players wanted him” recipe for disaster.
As long as HCs are picked on the whims of MD, we will continue to be a joke of a once (long time ago) proud franchise. We need to model how this franchise is set up on Pit and Balt, IMO, two of the best run organizations in the NFL. Pres of Football Operations who decides on GM, who decides on HC, who decides on his staff., with zero interference from MD.
Do I think MD will do this? Sadly, I’m not holding my breath.
Another 3-4 years lost in the woods upcoming. Pierce is not the guy, despite all these prominent players shilling for him last season. Now those players are either gone or apologists every Monday. Need a long-term quality answer at QB, shored up O line, a starting RB (yes JJ was worth keeping, apparently) WR1 and probably WR2. On D they need injuries back plus star CB1 and strong safety.
That’s all.
The question that needs asking is, What exactly does Pierce bring to the table as HC? He isn’t an x&O guy. He want’s to play smash mouth ball, but doesn’t know how to go about doing it?! As a fan it’s difficult to see Payton and Harbaugh turn our rival teams into playoff contenders in such a short time! Why can’t we do that??? Mark doesn’t have a clue!