If Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels was on the hot seat coming into the season, that seat is now in full-on flames. The Raiders dropped their third straight game, falling to the Los Angeles Chargers 24-17 on Sunday, and many are wondering if it’s time for owner Mark Davis to make a move.
McDaniels is now 7-14 in his tenure as Raiders head coach, and the team is struggling in all facets of the game, seemingly making no progress from last season to this one. The defense has continued to struggle to get pressure on the quarterback or create turnovers, while the offense, despite the additions made this offseason, is averaging just 15.5 points through the first four weeks.
Needless to say, some fans are fed up and let the Raiders owner know about it during Sunday’s loss to the Chargers as they yelled at Davis to fire McDaniels. Davis eventually chose to respond, telling the fans to smarten up, via NFL reporter Dov Kleiman:
Oh wow, a video showing #Raiders owner Mark Davis yelling at fans to: “Smarten up” after they told him he should fire Josh McDaniels https://t.co/0GVkEBzCMe pic.twitter.com/6t0bv7p5aD
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 3, 2023
This response to the fans would seem to indicate that Davis and the Raiders still believe in McDaniels as a coach and have no intentions of moving on from him. Giving a coach the time to really build up the team is understandable, but for a Raiders franchise expecting results right now, it might be difficult to justify keeping McDaniels for too much longer if things continue down this path.
Of course, there have been some issues beyond McDaniels’ control that have affected the team. The Chandler Jones saga was something no one could have prepared for, and the team was certainly counting on him coming into the season. The team was also without starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo against the Chargers due to a concussion and had to start rookie Aidan O’Connell who showed some flashes but also clearly isn’t quite ready yet.
But there have also been some coaching decisions from McDaniels that do not inspire any confidence from the fan base, most notably his decision against the Steelers to kick a field goal on fourth and four from inside the Pittsburgh 10-yard line with under two-and-a-half minutes remaining and the Raider down eight.
Mark Davis may be resistant to the idea of firing McDaniels right now, but the clock is ticking, and the fan base is clearly unhappy.
