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By Alan Snel, LSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — You could tell by the tone of Antonio Pierce’s voice during particular post-game presser at Allegiant Stadium that he was growing weary of observers looking at him as what he described as the “rah-rah” coach.
Certainly, Pierce was known for his bellowing “Ray-derssssssss” yells and his mantra of wanting to rekindle the old Raiders ethos of fiercely playing the game of football with an aggressive passion exhibited during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
But the former NFL linebacker who played for Washington and the New York Giants has connected to Raiders players in ways the man he replaced — Josh McDaniels — could not.
Pierce saw promise in players like defensive end Malcolm Koonce that McDaniels could not. Pierce took over for McDaniels for the final nine games on the 2023 season, winning five and losing four after McDaniels managed to win only three of eight games. The Raiders finished with eight wins and nine losses last season.
Don’t let 2023’s “interim” title fool you with the 45-year-old Pierce, raised in Compton, California and an NFL player for nine years.
Pierce responded to an LVSportsBiz.com question by saying he looked at himself as the permanent coach last season even before Raiders owner Mark Davis named him officially permanent coach.
The Raiders’ star receiver, Davante Adams, can vouch for that.
Adams said his head coach did not change one iota when he moved from interim coach to permanent coach.
Pierce’s answers come off as completely unrehearsed. He’s genuine — and that means a lot with the people who have to answer to him. In that way, he’s very different from his predecessor, McDaniels, who seemed stiff with not much of a personality and was all football 24/7.
Pierce responded to a reporter’s question that focused on Raiders’ rookie tight end Brock Bowers and a comparison to a former New York Giants tight end, Jeremy Shockey, who played with Pierce.
Here was Pierce’s response Friday on Shockey: “Nature Boy, yeah . . . I mean, he [Jeremy Shockey] had a pretty big impact early on. He was huge. I mean, I played against him his first two years, and when I became his teammate in ’05, it was just me and his locker, we called it ‘Death Row.’ Nobody else made it in that row besides me and him.”
Bottom line: Pierce comes off as real and authentic and workers like that in a boss.
Even last year when LVSportsBiz.com asked Pierce how he planned to make his case before Davis to be named permanent head coach, Pierce gave a real answer.
Pierce’s strength is his authenticity, an honesty with connecting to players that can easily be extended to any line of work — principal to teacher, road superintendent to laborer, boss to worker.
He preaches the Raiders players with consistency, and desires four solid quarters of plays
On Monday, his bluntness came through with this observation: “Raiders got a lot of things that we need to correct. I mean, we got to win yesterday, but there’s a lot of things in that first quarter that was ugly, and that first half that was ugly. And in that third quarter that was ugly, to be honest. So, I mean, we’re not worried about the Panthers. We got to fix the Raiders.”
Again with honesty, Pierce was brutal in his appraisal of an offensive line that has struggled in a loss to the Chargers in Los Angeles and a win Baltimore.
“Man, it’s got start up front. It’s got to start up front. I’m going to be honest and a coaching cliche here, but it starts with me. It starts with our coaches, our offensive line coach, our coordinator. That’s poor, that’s piss-poor, and it’s not good enough,” Pierce told the media Monday.
“And our players are going to hear about it here in a second. We just can’t do that. I mean, under two yards a carry, getting knocked back, third-and-short and not getting it. I mean, there has to be an intent and a play style that we talked about, that we practice, that we’ve been preaching since day one, and it’s not showing up on game day,” he said. “So, obviously, if it’s changes that need to be made, or scheme, everything’s on the table.”
Pierson brought in former veteran coaches Tom Coughlin and Marvin Lewis as sounding boards and sources of coaching advice. We asked Pierce today whether he has applied any of the things he has discussed Coughlin and Lewis in an actual game.
“Yeah, I mean I thought last week, it’s kind of the same situation. That game almost played
out exact same way as Week One. And Marvin [Lewis], I went to him about a question about situational
football, third and fourth down and he said, ‘AP go with your gut.’ It’s just things like that you need, like,
‘Don’t worry, last week is last week. How does this game look? And play it accordingly,’ and I think that’s
huge for me, because you need that little bit of confidence, right,?” Pierce explained.
“A lot of times you ask a coach, and they’ll be like, ‘Well coach, whatever you think.’ I asked for a reason, like they give me some feedback,” he said.
“And that’s what I love about both [Tom] Coughlin and Marvin. Obviously, Marvin is here every day, my
phone calls with Coughlin are in the morning, but it’s just good when you have that strong voice and
presence where they don’t worry about what I think or say, they give me the honest answer.”