The Las Vegas Raiders recently made a huge decision to oust former head coach Josh McDaniels, doing so less than two full seasons into a six-year contract given to him in January of 2022. It was clear that things simply weren’t working with McDaniels, but the Raiders are still on the hook to pay McDaniels for the next four seasons regardless.
This type of situation is upsetting to former All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski. The New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers star never had a connection to the Raiders, but felt compelled to speak on the issue with a broader focus on the difference between coaches and players.
He feels that it is unfair that McDaniels will still be paid for the full amount of his contract despite being fired after only one and a half seasons, and explains why via The Up and Adams Show:
“I feel for him a bit emotionally, but when you really think about it, this guy signed a six-year deal as a head coach. He’s gonna be paid out for those six years. So he’s getting head-coach money for the next four years of his life. That’s total BS.
“These coaches should only be getting contracts that are only like halfway guaranteed. Us players, we only get two or three years fully guaranteed out of a six-year contract.”
Gronkowski makes an interesting point that is not often discussed in that coaches have always gotten fully guaranteed contracts, while for players, it is a rarity. So when players get injured or don’t perform to the level they were expected to, they are often released and only owed part of the money that they were originally promised.
Meanwhile, coaches can underperform expectations without punishment, as they will still receive the entire amount of their contract regardless. McDaniels will get paid for six years despite only doing 1.5 years of work and finishing with a 9-16 record in that time.
If a player underperformed to that level on a six-year deal, they would likely be owed only 2-3 years worth of that money, as Gronkowski explains.
Davante Adams finding it easy to connect with Antonio Pierce
Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce is already making an impression within the locker room. After one game, he received significant praise from superstar wide receiver Davante Adams, according to Paul Gutierrez of ESPN:
“We’ve got a new leader right now,” said All-Pro receiver Davante Adams, “and it’s somebody that we can get behind and somebody that played the game. So it makes it a lot easier for us to connect with him, because he understands the mind of a player and he’s done a really good job just making sure we understand that it’s not about him — it’s about this team. It’s about us figuring it out and getting behind him, obviously. And I feel like that’s what everybody did. That’s why it looked that way today.”
