Image Credit: (Gary Vasquez/USA Today Sports)
Written by: Nicholas Mullick Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-mullick-354076184/
Twitter: @nicholasmullick
If there was one team that came in with a lot of hype it was of course the Las Vegas Raiders. I don’t blame them as last year it was a miracle that they made the playoffs while having one of the darkest seasons I have seen in awhile. However, if there was one thing I heavily stressed about my concerns with the Raiders regressing was not with the talent on the field, but in regards to coaching.
The Raiders decided to not retain Rich Bisaccia as the permanent head coach and decided to hire Josh McDaniels. Yes, because all Belichick disciples in his coaching tree have done a phenomenal job in their respective head coaching roles. I heavily stressed many times that this was a bad idea hiring McDaniels, especially with how controversial his tenure was as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. From what I have seen this season, McDaniels has learned nothing from his mistakes and has been a major issue for the Raiders. McDaniels is clearly on The Hot Seat regarding his position as the head coach of the Raiders.
Now, the Raiders season has long been over, but after last week, that pretty much was the dagger. Once that game against the Indianapolis Colts ended all I had to say was this, “Josh McDaniels needs to be fired and now”.
There is no excuse whatsoever for the Raiders to lose that game. The Colts had a roller coaster week, where they just fired their head coach and have been statistically the worst team according to DVOA. I don’t care if the Raiders are dealing with injuries, with the talent and depth that this team has, that is no excuse. Just look at the team on the sidelines and even in the locker room, they are so unmotivated. The culture of the locker room is also not great either. Just look at Derek Carr in the tweet below.
That is what a broken man looks like and I have never seen Carr like this. Even during the dark season last year he always kept his head up high. That speaks to how poor the coaching is at maintaining the culture of the locker room.
It is clear that Josh McDaniels is on The Hot Seat and If it was me I would have gotten rid of him the moment the Colts game ended. Do I think that he is gone though, probably not with Mark Davis’s comments.
Now look, I respect Mark Davis as he took a massive economic risk relocating the team to Las Vegas as he took a gigantic loan to make it happen. However, he is delusional if he really thinks that Josh McDaniels is doing a fantastic job. When I first heard this I was like, “Really? You think 2-7 is fantastic?”.
It is a wait and see what happens next, but the Raiders are going nowhere this season. In fact they are even going further nowhere as long as McDaniels is still the head coach of this team. He is clearly on the hot seat now and for many weeks/months he is still the head coach of the Raiders.