The Las Vegas Raiders are starting over. Coming off a Monday night loss to the Detroit Lions and in the middle of a terrible season, the Raiders have fired head coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Zeigler, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. The news came in at 1 AM/EST and marks the NFL’s first firings of the season.
UPDATE (1:15 AM): The Raiders’ organization officially announced the news.
McDaniels went 9-16 in his two seasons with the team. This is the second time he’s been fired as an NFL head coach following a stint with the Denver Broncos from 2009 to 2010.
Former NFL LB and Raiders LB Coach Antonio Pierce is expected to be named interim head coach.
While obviously not hyper-relevant to the Steelers, they did hand the Raiders one of their five losses this season. Pittsburgh knocked off Las Vegas 23-18 in Week Three, holding off a second half Raiders’ comeback. Pittsburgh picked off QB Jimmy Garoppolo three times in the win and generated a big 72-yard touchdown to WR Calvin Austin III. After the game, players expressed frustration over the loss and the direction of their season, two things that didn’t improve into the fall.
While the Raiders are 3-5 and hardly have the NFL’s worst record, they feel among the league’s most dysfunctional teams. They moved on from QB Derek Carr for Garoppolo, a move that has made their offense significantly worse. It’s come at the expense of frustrated star WR Davante Adams, held to just one catch Monday night, and one of the league’s most ineffective units. They’ve rotated quarterbacks and started three of them through the NFL’s first eight weeks using Garoppolo, rookie Aidan O’Connell and veteran Brian Hoyer, shuffling them back and forth.
Defensively, their only notable piece is DE Maxx Crosby, who has 6.5 sacks on the season. No other Raiders’ player has more than one. At least ex-Steelers LB Robert Spillane has been around the ball plenty this season with a pair of interceptions and fumble recovery.
With the Raiders going nowhere, owner Mark Davis is pulling the plug. McDaniels and Ziegler come from New England and were hired as a packaged deal but unable to recreate the Patriots’ magic. Now, they exit together. Schefter notes McDaniels had four years left on his contract that will have to be paid out by the team.
It’s the second time the team has cleaned house since the end of the 2022 season when they fired GM Jon Gruden (largely due to his email scandal) and GM Mike Mayock. Since 2017, the Raiders have just one winning season. The franchise hasn’t won a playoff game since 2002. They’re the first team to have head coach and front office vacancies but they certainly won’t be the last.
