Patriot Way Ends In Las Vegas Halloween Night: Raiders Owner Mark Davis Pulls Plug On McDaniels, Ziegler As Coach, GM; Names Antonio Pierce As Interim Coach, Champ Kelly As Interim GM
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
At 1:02 PM Tuesday, Josh McDaniels walked into what would become his last media conference at Raiders headquarters in Henderson.
Nine hours after McDaniels talked about, “We obviously have to do better,” before eight media members, the Raiders issued a short press release at 10:04 PM saying, “The Las Vegas Raiders have relieved Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler of their duties as head coach and general manager.”
Only the night before in Detroit, the Raiders mustered a mere 157 yards in total offense in a 26-14 loss that dropped the team’s record to three wins and five losses after McDaniels won only six games out of 17 in his first year as head coach of the Raiders in 2022.
In the release, Raiders owner Mark Davis said, “After much thought about what the Raiders need to move forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave. I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best.”
On Jan. 31, 2022, Davis introduced Ziegler as GM and McDaniels as coach. At that media conference , Davis said, “I think that now we’re just moving to the next level. It’s not a rebuild. It’s not a reload.”
McDaniels and Ziegler are close friends who came to Las Vegas as a package deal from the New England Patriots with hopes the two former college football teammates would deliver the Patriots’ past Super Bowl winning ways with the Raiders. It never happened for the duo, who attended John Carroll University in the 1990s.
In what turned out to be McDaniels’ final presser, LVSportsBiz,com asked him whether he was surprised by the Raiders’ low point production. Here’s his answer:
McDaniels, 47, from the Akron area, inherited a 10-7 playoff team in 2022 that was coached by Rich Bisaccia on an interim bases. It was a chaotic year for the Raiders in 2021 when previous head coach Jon Gruden went 3-2 before resigning in Oct. 2021 because of emails he wrote from 2010-18.
Taking over the coaching reins from Gruden, Bisaccia won seven and lost five during his interim stint and guided the Raiders to the NFL playoffs. The Raiders were the conference’s top-seeded wild card team before losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in the postseason. The Bengals went on to the Super Bowl that season.
As a business, the Raiders created one of the NFL’s signature brands while winning three Super Bowls in 1977, 1981 and 1984 and creating one of the league’s most loyal fan bases.
But the team has had a winning record only twice in the last 20 years. Remarkably, even with the team compiling losing records in 2022 and 2023, the franchise’s value soared to $6.2 billion this year thanks to their move to Las Vegas and a revenue-generating stadium, according to Forbes business magazine.
NFL team value, however, cannot buy you wins.
Two years after he named Bisaccia as an interim coach, Davis was back to naming another interim coach to replace McDaniels.
Antonio Pierce is interim head coach. Pierce is in his second season as the team’s linebackers coach. He has seven years of coaching experience, and nine years of NFL playing experience. Before joining the Raiders, Pierce spent five seasons at Arizona State serving as linebackers coach before adding the titles of associate head coach and defensive coordinator.
“The Las Vegas Raiders are committed to undergo a comprehensive search for a head coach once the season is complete,” the Raiders release said.
Raiders have named Champ Kelly as interim general manager. Kelly is in his second season as assistant GM.
McDaniel’s final presser on Halloween went for 13 minutes and featured many coaching comments he had said before. He did point out the Raiders trailed only, 16-14, in the third quarter and had the ball. But most of the comments went like this.
“We have to do the fundamental things better.”
“It’s not magic. We have to better execute play after play.”
McDaniel’s final public comments were uttered at 1:15PM.
