After an impressive end to the 2023 NFL season, in which the Las Vegas Raiders won three out of the last four games of the regular season, including putting up a historic 63 points against the division-rival Los Angeles Chargers, the team has made a decision regarding their head coaching vacancy.
As a result of Antonio Pierce being a player and fan favorite during his short time as interim head coach, the Raiders are reportedly working to finalize a deal with him to remove the interim tag and become the team’s new head coach moving forward, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The Las Vegas Raiders are working to finalize a deal to hire Antonio Pierce as their head coach, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Friday.
Following an ugly start to the season and seemingly losing the locker room trust and respect in the process, longtime owner Mark Davis chose to part ways with head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, putting an end to the Patriot Way in Las Vegas.
The New York Giants legend took over for McDaniels as the interim head coach, with everyone expecting the team to limp through the rest of the season, but that’s not what happened, as he inspired the players and won over the locker room quickly with his coaching style.
Pierce became so popular with his players that every notable player on the team was endorsing him to become the team’s head coach. Davante Adams, Jack Jones and Maxx Crosby were his biggest supporters and publicly made it known that they wanted him back.
Crosby went as far as to say he’d consider all of his options if the team chose to move on from Pierce in favor of another head coach available on the open market, like Jim Harbaugh or Mike Vrabel, who were both linked to the team at different times.
With Pierce now in the fold for the foreseeable future, it’ll be interesting to see what moves are made to put the best people around him on the coaching staff to get this team to reach its true potential.
One rumor that has been circulating is that former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury would join the coaching staff to be the new offensive coordinator if Pierce was retained. Only time will tell if that turns out to be true, as it could be a game-changing move for this offense.
