Sin City Raiders

In the famous words of Ron Burgundy, “that really got out of hand fast.” In less than two years, Josh McDaniels, who many fans began to call “McDummy”, went from a promising head coaching hire to being the first NFL coach to be fired in the 2023 season. Just a few weeks prior to the firing, Mark Davis got into an argument with a fan pleading Mark to fire Josh, only for an angry Mark to reply “smarten up.” Now, here we are in the aftermath of that demanded firing and one can only help but wonder, where did it all go wrong with McDaniels, or “McDummy”, and the Las Vegas Raiders? This “fanalyst” has three ideas.

Leadership

Expectations were high immediately. McDaniels was inheriting a team that overcame immense adversity to make a playoff appearance. The 2021 Raiders went through Jon Gruden’s email scandal that led to his resignation, the Henry Ruggs tragedy and another former first-round pick, Damon Arnette, showing off guns on social media and being released.

Riding a wave of clutch Daniel Carlson field goals, the Raiders went to Cincinnati for a playoff game where more adversity awaited in the form of an official blowing his whistle in the middle of a play (thinking Joe Burrow was out of bounds) that resulted in a Bengals touchdown. This would prove to be too much to overcome. The Raiders fought back to the point where they had a chance to tie the game in the final 30 seconds, only for Derek Carr to throw an interception that ended the Raiders season. Although it is debatable how good that team was when looking at stats like point differential (-65 points) and their record in one-score games (a remarkable 7-2) one thing that was for sure is they had incredible leadership to go through a season like that and make the playoffs.

Leadership often comes from the quarterback. And while Derek Carr was one of the most controversial players in franchise history, being the starting quarterback since 2014 made him a leader of that 2021 squad and would make him a leader on a 2022 team that McDaniels would inherit.

As we now know, the relationship between Carr and McDaniels would crumble (more on that to come). It wasn’t only Carr who reacted negatively to McDaniels. Shortly before his firing, McDaniels held a team meeting and allowed players to speak openly and air grievances. This meeting would shed light on the disconnect between players and the coach and the disdain that the players had for McDaniels would influence Mark Davis in deciding to fire him.

Looking back on the hiring, as Mark Davis narrowed his decision down to McDaniels and interim coach Rich Bisaccia, Davis must have been thinking of X’s-and-O’s rather than leadership. Some players rallied behind Bisaccia, but it is hard to justify going with the interim coach who had been a special-teams coordinator rather than reaching for the stars and hiring someone who has six Super Bowl rings and a reputation as an offensive mastermind. At that time, I couldn’t say I faulted Davis for thanking Bisaccia for his incredible service, going for the offensive mastermind and imagining what the possibilities could be with (at that time) Carr, Darren Waller, Hunter Renfrow and Josh Jacobs (with the looming trade for Davante Adams still to come). But that leads us to the next topic. Would McDaniels build on what the Raiders did in 2021 or try to do things…

The Patriot Way

Long before Mark Davis hired him to become the next head coach of the Raiders, McDaniels had his first opportunity as a head coach in Denver. Raider Nation surely remembers those days fondly as we watched a division-rival make questionable decisions such as trading a Pro-Bowl quarterback (even if it was Jay Cutler) for Kyle Orton.

Originally, McDaniels wanted Matt Cassell to build on their time together in New England. Yes, McDaniels wanting to bring his guy from New England in the form of a Tom Brady backup does sound painfully familiar.

As McDaniels sat at his introductory press conference, one thing reporters asked was how his experience as a Raider coach would differ from his time in Denver. McDaniels spoke of learning from the past and going forward. But actions are much stronger than words.

In Denver, he burnt his bridge with Jay Cutler in a few months. In Vegas, perhaps in a sign of learning from past mistakes, it took a bit longer but McDaniels would eventually have another bad relationship with his starting quarterback and Derek Carr would leave the team two games before the end of the 2022 season. (If you haven’t read it yet, Hondo Carpenter has an amazing story on their relationship).

In 2022 and 2023, seven coaches with ties to McDaniels would join him in Las Vegas as well as about a dozen players. It is understandable for a new head coach to want players whom he has experience with, but as he forced “The Patriot Way” into Vegas, there were some moves that didn’t fit.

One of those moves was replacing Yannick Ngakoue (who had 10 sacks in 2021) with Chandler Jones; who would have 4.5 sacks in 2022 compared to Ngakoue’s 9.5 with the Colts which came with a much better value than the 3-year, $50 million or so that an aging Jones was getting with the Raiders. Although Jones had perhaps the highlight of the year with his walk-off touchdown against the Patriots, 2022 would be his only year with the team as off-field and legal trouble ended his time in Silver and Black.

But looking at the roster, the handling of the quarterback situation has to be considered where McDaniels failed the most. Carr was given a new contract in one of the new regime’s first acts in Vegas. It was a contract that Carr was able to get out of after one season, leaving the team without any trade compensation as he left the team he led for nine years. In the aftermath, Jarrett Stidham showed potential in his one start against the 49ers, but would leave the Raiders in free agency.

Rumors have run rampant over the years, even before McDaniels came to Vegas, that there was a mutual interest between Tom Brady and the Raiders, but was the plan for McDaniels really to bring a 45-year-old quarterback out of retirement; even if he had just won a Super Bowl a few years ago? Regardless of whether that was the plan, one important life lesson McDaniels should know is to always have a backup plan. Maybe he does know. And maybe he took the phrase “backup” too literal.

Going into 2022 without Tom Brady, the answer for McDaniels was the signing of Jimmy Garoppolo for three-years at about $72 million. Although they had familiarity with one-another as Garoppolo was Brady’s backup in New England under McDaniels, they last worked together in the 2016 season. Over the next five years, Garoppolo would become a polarizing quarterback in San Francisco as people argued about his winning percentage versus his individual performance on a team with an elite offensive line, running game and defense and his zero rings with that team. McDaniels must’ve only been interested in the winning percentage and that time they had spent together several years earlier.

The Raiders used an incredible amount of resources in spending big on both Carr and Garopollo, and Jones as well as handing out extensions to Hunter Renfrow and Darren Waller; two players McDaniels would rarely utilize. Sure, they both had injury-plagued seasons, but Renfrow showed what he could do when healthy in 2021 as did Waller in 2019-20. I can’t say that I’m upset about trading Waller as he was aging and had trouble staying on the field. What did concern me was how the Raiders could have felt he was worth extending after the 2021 season and then trade him after the 2022 season as well as extend Renfrow, then barely utilize him and shop him at the trade deadline. Maybe the problem wasn’t the player. What if the problem was…

Coaching

The biggest move McDaniels would make would be trading for Davante Adams. With the Raiders sending a first and second round pick to Green Bay, the Adams trade (and record-setting contract for a receiver) was a sign that the Raiders had championship aspirations in 2022. Right? I mean, a rebuilding team wouldn’t sacrifice cap-space and draft-capital for two players either in, or past, their primes.

However, the Raiders would go 6-11. They would lose nine one-score games in 2022; games that had gone their way in 2021. In many of those games, the Raiders had double-digit leads, but found a way to become the first team in NFL history to blow five or more double-digit, second-half leads. Among those, three of those were once leads of 17 points. The 2022 Raiders also lost to a Colts team coached by Jeff Saturday; making his debut as their interim coach. They lost to Baker Mayfield as he made his Rams debut after having less than a week to learn their playbook. It is hard to imagine this is the same team that was within a point of beating the Kansas City Chiefs in a game that ended when Hunter Renfrow ran into Davante Adams.

I could go onto the losses early in 2023, but I think we get the point. Instead let’s keep the focus on McDaniels. In his time with the Broncos, Rams and Raiders, he was not able to duplicate anything close to the success he had in New England. Not long ago, we saw Adam Gase ride the coattails of Peyton Manning to head coaching opportunities only to see him embarrass himself time and time again and now we have seen (up close) McDaniels ride the coattails of Tom Brady only to prove that McDaniels is a product of the Brady system rather than vice versa..

Moving On

After replacing the interim coach after the 2021 season, we have to ask ourselves if Mark Davis will think extra hard about whether or not to retain Antonio Pierce. At the time of this writing, Pierce is 2-1 and the Chiefs are up next for the Raiders and we know for sure that Davis will be watching extra closely as he ponders his next move.

As for McDaniels, after his three years with the Broncos and Rams, he returned to New England. He also accepted, then rejected an offer to leave the Patriots for the Colts. In the aforementioned team meeting where his lack of leadership was on full display, he told Antonio Pierce to never speak ill of the Patriots. That organization that McDaniels speaks so fondly of is currently playing for a draft pick rather than another Super Bowl and they could have either an offensive coordinator or maybe even a head coach opening after this season. Whether it is to be an offensive coordinator or head coach and whether it is a rookie quarterback or Mac Jones, who McDaniels had some success with in the past, don’t be surprised to see McDaniels return to the sidelines of New England in 2024.

Whatever “McDummy” ends up doing next, most of Raider Nation is certainly saying “don’t let the door hit you in the (you know what) on the way out.”