The Las Vegas Raiders cleaned house on Tuesday night, firing head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler. As owner Mark Davis showed them the door, he named linebacker coach Antonio Pierce the interim head coach and elevated assistant GM Champ Kelly to acting GM.
“Definitely surprised,” Kelly said of the firings during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t think we saw it coming.”
While it may have caught those within the organization by surprise, Pierce relayed that the staff is “on the same page.”
“Our staff is connected,” he said. “We had a great team meeting this morning. Everybody was focused. We walked in with a smile on our face. The synergy and energy in this building and the personality of our players will reflect who we are as Raiders.”
The change comes with the Raiders sitting at 3-5 on the year and losers of two straight. The latest loss on Monday night against the Lions was an overall lifeless effort where the team totaled just 157 yards of total offense.
“We’re tired of losing,” added Pierce. “It’s not a good feeling. We’re a production-based business.”
On top of the change atop the masthead, Pierce also confirmed to reporters that rookie Aidan O’Connell will start for the club going forward, sending Jimmy Garoppolo to the bench. Both he and Kelly noted that the team was “very supportive” of the change under center.
Pierce has been with the Raiders since 2022 when he was hired as the linebackers coach. Before that, he came up through the coaching ranks at the collegiate level at Arizona State. When asked what this moment means to him as he ascends to the interim head coach role, Pierce emphasized his Raider roots as a California native.
“I had opportunities to leave and go to other organizations, but I decided not to,” Pierce said. “The short story, the matter of fact is I grew up in Compton, California. I was born a Raider. I was born with the Raiders rolling into the Coliseum in L.A.. I was rolling with N.W.A., talking straight out of Compton, rocking Raiders hats. So when an opportunity came to work with Josh [McDaniels] and Pat Graham, and Dave [Ziegler], I jumped on it. That’s what set me up for this. I was born this way.”
Pierce spent nearly a decade in the NFL as a player and won Super Bowl XLII as a member of the Giants, who the Raiders just so happen to play on Sunday in his debut.
“How about that?” Pierce said of facing his former team. “Couldn’t write it up. But it’s not Antonio Pierce vs. the New York Giants. It’s the Las Vegas Raiders vs. the Giants. Coming into our house. A much-needed win for us. We’ve had two ugly losses. It’s time to change that. We’re in the second half of the season. Doesn’t matter what or who Antonio Pierce played for. It’s about the Las Vegas Raiders. Those players understand that. It’s about them. It ain’t about me.”
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Author: Tyler Sullivan
November 1, 2023 | 6:10 pm
