Antonio Pierce guided the Las Vegas Raiders to a 2-2 record in his first season as the club’s full-time head coach but couldn’t prevent his team from experiencing what became a five-game losing streak via Sunday’s 41-24 defeat at the Cincinnati Bengals.
As Paul Gutierrez of ESPN and others pointed out, the Raiders fired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, offensive line coach James Cregg and quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello heading into their Week 10 bye. All three men were in their first season with the organization.
Understandably, Pierce and/or Raiders owner Mark Davis would want to shake things up amid the team’s break. According to ESPN stats, 2-7 Las Vegas began Monday ranked 29th in the NFL in total offense (280.2 yards gained per game), last in rushing yards per game (76.9) and 26th in scoring (18.7 points per game) for the season. With that said, there’s little reason for fans to believe the coaching dismissals will save what seems to be a lost campaign for the franchise.
Per Mike Sando of The Athletic, Pierce sat quarterback Gardner Minshew three times during games across the team’s first nine contests. 2023 fourth-round draft pick Aidan O’Connell largely failed to impress before he suffered a fractured right thumb in October, and 2022 third-round choice Desmond Ridder is probably little more than a Band-Aid option for the team through Week 18.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Las Vegas’ coaching moves is that they were made just a couple of weeks after it was said that some individuals within the New England Patriots believe that new Raiders minority owner Tom Brady will ask Bill Belichick to replace Pierce this coming offseason. Davis reportedly will consult with Brady regarding certain personnel decisions such as the team’s search for a long-term franchise quarterback.
Wide receiver Davante Adams and star pass-rusher Maxx Crosby were among the noteworthy Raiders players who campaigned for Pierce to receive the full-time job after he went 5-4 as interim coach last season. Las Vegas traded Adams to the New York Jets last month, and the Raiders could make Crosby available before the 2025 draft.
It’s unclear if Belichick would have any interest in helping Brady try to fix the Raiders, as the living legend who turns 73 years old this coming April is repeatedly linked with a 3-5 Dallas Cowboys team that has quarterback Dak Prescott locked down for years to come and could be roughly two months away from parting ways with head coach Mike McCarthy.
Davis may want to give Pierce more than one entire season to right the ship, but that desire theoretically wouldn’t prevent Brady from reaching out to Belichick just to see if the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach would consider being part of what’s going to be a multiyear organizational rebuild.
