In the early hours of Wednesday morning or the late hours of Tuesday night — depending on what part of the country you’re in — the Las Vegas Raiders made the shocking decision to fire both head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler.
It’s shocking in the sense that McDaniels has four full seasons left on his contract, but not from a performance perspective. McDaniels and Raiders were coming off a 26-14 loss to the Detroit Lions, in which his offense mustered just 157 total yards. That seemed to be the final straw for owner Mark Davis, who will eat the remainder of McDaniels’ contract, so the former New England Patriots offensive coordinator, who has a 20-33 regular season record as a head coach, will no longer be a deterrent to the team.
In firing McDaniels, the Raiders opted to go with a position coach as their interim coach. Linebackers coach Antonio Pierce has been named interim head coach, and will likely finish out the remainder of the regular season with that title.
Sources; Raiders are planning to name LB coach Antonio Pierce as their interim head coach. pic.twitter.com/ABVVZSCsV8
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 1, 2023
There’s also a chance that this may be an audition for the head job, as Las Vegas will be paying both McDaniels and Jon Gruden not to coach their team. Not to mention that the Raiders clearly made a mistake in not just hiring Rich Bisaccia, who served as the interim for Gruden.
As for Pierce, he has an extensive coaching career that dates back to 2014. He served as the head coach at Long Beach Poly HS (CA) from 2014-17. In 2018, he was hired by Herm Edwards to be on the coaching staff at Arizona State University, where he served as the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2018-19. He added the title of associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator in 2020 and officially was elevated to the team’s sole defensive coordinator in 2021 while dropping his linebacker coaching duties.
Pierce resigned from his post prior to the 2022 season as the NCAA investigated ASU for committing several recruiting violations. He reportedly led the charge in pushing the boundaries to commit recruiting violations, allowing recruits to visit during the dead period. It was reported at the time that he was eying NFL coaching opportunities, for what it’s worth.
Two years later, he’s a head coach in the National Football League.
Those in the NFL world were quick to offer their opinions on Pierce being named Las Vegas’ interim head coach.
jim harbaugh watching antonio pierce go from NCAA violations to an NFL head coaching job pic.twitter.com/ALnprx4Chy
— charles (“you look good” – andy reid) mcdonald (@FourVerts) November 1, 2023
New Raiders’ HC Antonio Pierce now will be the 12th different person to coach a game for the Raiders over the past 20 seasons, including interims, the most of any franchise over that span. Pierce will be the eighth different coach, interim or regular, for the Raiders since Mark… pic.twitter.com/9snLi8fupm
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 1, 2023
Great decision. A real leader and the smartest player I ever played with. He Will be successful. https://t.co/dOnxUxcZjD
— OSI (@OsiUmenyiora) November 1, 2023
Surely he didn't ruin any college programs https://t.co/Xw9NiDDXwD
— Theo Ash (@TheoAshNFL) November 1, 2023
Well now. This is a guy who might just be able to inspire some guys to play hard for him. https://t.co/zdVuRMehXo
— Levi Damien (@LeviDamien) November 1, 2023
Antonio Pierce’s first game as a head coach will be against the Giants.
Funny how life works. https://t.co/TyBR7NoiWf
— Giants Daily (@NYGDaily) November 1, 2023
Credentials: getting his head coach fired for being awful at cheating and then dipping in that job to get his new head coach fired.
Classic Raiders stuff. https://t.co/0TA2ESlflF
— Kevin Zimmerman (@KZimmermanAZ) November 1, 2023
Pierce allows for Graham to stay on defense and focus there, plus he’s an energetic coach that should be able to help the players
Excited to see Lombardi call plays https://t.co/DUXc6bFxCe
— Tristen Kuhn (@KuhnTristen) November 1, 2023
Pierce played in the NFL with the Washington Commanders (2001-04) and New York Giants (2005-09). He was named a Pro Bowler in ’06 and won Super Bowl XLII with the team that he’ll coach against come this Sunday.