Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce is making a strong case to have his interim title removed after the season, but how much of the Raiders three-game turnaround has been a reflection of the interim GM?
Champ Kelly interviewed with the Raiders in 2022 for the GM position that was given to Dave Ziegler, but was later hired by Ziegler to be his Assistant General Manager.
Kelly now holds the Raiders interim GM title, but will it hurt his long-term status with the team that he worked under Ziegler for the last 21 months?
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport seems to think it might… or at least it could.
These were Rapoport’s comments this week on Raider Nation Radio’s Unnecessary Roughness With Q Myers…
”If Champ Kelly was in another organization and had the exact same credentials, that would be the kind of guy you would consider for a GM. He is a good scout, he sounds good, he’s a good face of a franchise, has a great resume, does it the right way. That’s the kind of guy you would definitely consider. I don’t know if the fact that he was brought in by Dave Ziegler will help or not.
The reality is [Mark Davis] probably shouldn’t have fired Ziegler. The guy didn’t even get to choose his own quarterback, only really had one draft class because he did the Davante Adams trade. To me, that seemed odd. I don’t know that it should be held against Champ Kelly because Ziegler didn’t exactly do a bad job. We have no idea… but I imagine he’ll get real consideration. Can he keep it? I don’t know, but I think he’ll get real consideration.”
twitter: @raidersbeat
The RAIDERS seem to have a different attitude right now, I would leave things as they are for right now. If the RAIDERS truly want to do things ” the RAIDERS way “,I say give them a chance.
Let’s see, Rich Gannon, Jim Plunkett, Lyle Alzado, kinda see where I’m going with this and I know there plenty others, so if you can think of any please add to this list.
pride and poise…Just win baby!
Rapoport is delusional. Ziegler did terrible job. Bad team contracts for Carr, Jones, and Renfro. Bad draft yields. Even the Adams trade didn’t make any sense. Ziegler never had any GM experience, so basically he got the gig by talking himself into it. Something not too difficult to do with Mark Davis. Davis needs to put together a team to help him with these important team decisions. Otherwise, it Raiders will continue to be a train wreck as they have been under his watch.
This seems contradictory. We’re told Davis interviewed Champ to be the GM, but Rapoport says Champ was “brought in by Ziegler.” Well clearly he impressed Davis independent of Ziegler bringing him in, no? It’s not like he’s another ex-Patriot who rode that wave to Vegas with McDaniels.
And the case he makes for keeping Ziegler could have been applied to Mayock too in my opinion. Do we really know that Mayock was pounding the table for the likes of Leatherwood and Arnette? Everything I’ve read suggests no, but it is on the record that he pounded the table for Jacobs, Maxx, and Hunter among others.
Furthermore, Ziegler was the GM who extended Carr and gave him the no trade clause that resulted in the Raiders getting zero comp for a **** good starting QB. Even the most ardent Carr-hater would have to concede that we are vastly worse off at the most important position in the game currently. And that’s not even mentioning the extension to Waller before moving on from him and extending Hunter before foolishly burying him on the bench. How about the offensive line? What did Ziegler do to fix that other than saying “good luck,” to Briscillo?!?
McDaniels clearly had to go but so did Ziegler, and I don’t hold that against Kelly.
Well said! Also I can’t respect a GM that’s not his own man. When it comes to building a team, it’s easy to say he was Josh’s puppet but at the same time he didn’t do anything to distinguish himself as a man who is not a puppet.