Sin City Raiders

It wasn’t long ago that the visitors’ locker room in Kansas City was filled with smoke from victory cigars on Christmas Day as the Las Vegas Raiders, led by the popular interim coach Antonio Pierce, upset the Chiefs. Combined with a primetime beatdown of the Los Angeles Chargers, and with a season finale victory over the Denver Broncos, the Raiders finished 2023 strong.

The future looked bright. The Raiders went 5-4 after Pierce replaced Josh McDaniels in the middle of the season. With that success under Pierce’s leadership, it looked like the Raiders got a head start on building for 2024. Team captains Davante Adams and Maxx Crosby endorsed Pierce to become the permanent head coach. The team brought in an experienced GM in Tom Telesco. The Raiders were on track to compete in 2024.

So, where did it all go wrong?

The first troubling sign came early in the off-season as Pierce was assembling his staff. With the head coach’s background being defense, hiring a good offensive coordinator was critical. It seemed like Pierce had found a solid candidate in Kliff Kingsbury, but the deal fell through in the 11th hour and Kingsbury went to Washington.

When a player gets injured on the field, the philosophy is “next man up.” The same had to be said about Pierce’s offensive coordinator vacancy. The Raiders would wind up with Luke Getsy, who had been let go in Chicago after failing to find success with Justin Fields. The hire was uninspiring, but Pierce attempted to justify Getsy’s hiring by referring to when the Bears beat the Raiders in 2023 with an unknown, undrafted backup quarterback.

Going forward with Getsy, the Raiders made changes to their offensive approach. The decision was made to embrace the wide-zone running scheme. Rather than going downhill, between the tackles with power and force, they would use more technique and finesse and stretch defenses out horizontally and run outside the tackles. While some teams have had great success with that style of play, the Raiders would not. Whether it was coaching, the players not being suited for the scheme, or both, the Raiders would go on to have one of the worst rushing attacks in the NFL under Getsy. The new offensive coordinator would be fired after nine games.

Another obstacle the Raiders cold not overcome in 2024 was injuries to their defensive line. Before the season, the defensive line was projected to be led by Maxx Crosby, Malcolm Koonce (coming off a breakout in 2023) and their prized free-agent acquisition Christian Wilkins. Koonce never played a down in the regular season and Wilkins would go on the IR several weeks into the season. Even Crosby, who rarely missed a snap coming into the season, finished the year on the IR. What was supposed to be the strongest position group on the roster was decimated not by offensive lines, but by injury.

Another topic worth consideration is if Pierce lost the support of his players. Back in his interim days, he made it fun to be a Raider. He brought a basketball hoop and victory cigars into the locker room. He told Davante Adams to shake his dreads. When it came time to hire an offensive coordinator, Pierce hired Getsy in part because Adams and Getsy had a history together from their time in Green Bay. Then came 2024 and Adams went from shaking his dreads to shaking his head.

Adams had endorsed Pierce in January, but as the calendar turned to August, a fracture in the coach-player relationship formed. Pierce wanted all his players to play in preseason. Adams made it publicly known he did not want to do so. In the end, Adams did not suit up at all for preseason games, but the damage to the relationship had been done.

Adams had one of his best games as a Raider when the Silver and Black went to Baltimore and rallied to upset the Ravens. Then, one week later the Raiders fell into the trap game of all trap games and were embarrassed by the Carolina Panthers. Following that game, Adams appeared on the injury report with what could have been listed as a bruised ego. Adams asked for a trade and the rest is history.

Although Adams quit on the team, he seems to be the only player to have done so. The Raiders continued to play hard for Pierce, almost repeated their 2023 upset at Kansas City and won games against the Saints and Jaguars to finish a lost season strong. So, Pierce did not seem to have lost the support of his players and maybe, just maybe, Adams was the problem.

Overall, the 2024 Raiders showed regression. Pierce had led the team to five wins in only half of the 2023 season. He won only four games with a full season. Perhaps Mark Davis wanted to give Pierce more time and another chance to find an offensive coordinator, but was influenced by Tom Brady to clean house? Either way, whether it is fair or unfair, Pierce is gone and the Raiders are, once again, searching for not just a new head coach but a new direction.