By the end of last season, Antonio Pierce had rallied the Las Vegas Raiders during a successful stint as interim coach and got the chance to replicate that success as the permanent head coach this season.
He couldn’t.
The Raiders started 2-12 and it was clear that the Pierce experiment wouldn’t last another season. Pierce was fired on Tuesday afternoon, the team announced. General manager Tom Telesco will keep his job.
Pierce was supposed to be an interim coach getting the Raiders through the remainder of a tough 2023 season after Josh McDaniels was fired. Pierce was a former NFL linebacker who had less than two full seasons of NFL coaching experience, as a linebackers coach. But the players quickly took to his leadership style and he brought energy and confidence to a Raiders franchise that needed it. A win at the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas was a huge factor in owner Mark Davis deciding to give Pierce the job on a permanent basis.
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Not much of the momentum carried over. The Raiders had quarterback issues, which didn’t help. They traded their star receiver, Davante Adams. The Raiders started 2-2 but lost 10 straight games after that. They got a couple wins late in the season but it was too late for it to matter to Davis and his decision on his 2025 head coach.
The Raiders’ job isn’t a great one. There’s still little long-term hope at the quarterback position. A lot of work needs to be done on the roster outside of the quarterback position. The Raiders have just two playoff appearances since the end of the 2022 season and no postseason wins.
Davis hasn’t found the right fit yet at head coach. The Raiders have had nine coaches, counting interims, over the past 15 seasons. They’ll be on their 10th coach in 16 seasons in 2025. It won’t be that easy to sell the job to a top candidate, but a change was inevitable after Pierce failed to recreate any of his success form the end of the 2023 season.
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