Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis fired the team’s head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, the team announced Wednesday on X.
“After much thought about what the Raiders need to move forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave,” Davis said on Twitter. “I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best,” Davis announced following the team’s Monday night loss to the Detroit Lions, their fifth of the season.
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) November 1, 2023
The Raiders are still on the hook for the remaining four and a half years of McDaniels’ contract, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported.
McDaniels lasted less than a season and a half. Coming over from New England with Ziegler prior to the 2022 season, the pair steered the Raiders to a 9-16 record during their tenure.
During that time McDaniels witnessed his star defender publicly descend into a paranoid meltdown, built an offensive gameplan that’s utterly wasted one of the best receivers in the game and built a locker room culture that can best be summed up by running back Josh Jacob’s response when asked how to fix the team’s struggles after Monday’s loss. “That ain’t my job,” the running back told reporters.
McDaniels, once a coveted coaching commodity after his successful years working under Bill Belichick as the New England Patriots offensive coordinator, will be replaced in the interim by linebackers coach Antonio Pierce, the team said on Twitter. (RELATED: NFL Player Gets 4-Game Suspension For Doing His Damn Job)
While they face a steep uphill battle at 3-5, the still-talented Raiders can’t play worse than they did under McDaniels, who seemed to be actively disliked by some of his players.
Pierce is the exact opposite of the hyper-analytical McDaniels. The fiery former linebacker was well known for his pregame speeches and shouldn’t be hard to play for, especially not after the disaster that was the McDaniels Vegas era.