HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Antonio Pierce remains the Las Vegas Raiders' coach.
For now, anyway.
“I haven’t been told anything different,” Pierce said Monday.
The club has made no announcements, but Pierce's appearance at a news conference wrapping up his team's 4-13 season bodes well for his future. That all could change, and Pierce acknowledged he still needed to sit down with owner Mark Davis and general manager Tom Telesco. Minority owner Tom Brady also figures to have a say.
Speculation about Pierce's job security is “only coming from the outside,” he said. “It’s not inside the building. So, to me, there’s nothing to clean up until I hear from inside the building.”
That means Pierce will continue to go about his job, including trying to retain at least most of his staff. He said he didn't plan to make changes.
Pierce, no doubt, was dealt a lousy hand this season.
The Raiders weren't considered playoff contenders in training camp, and that was before a scourge of injuries that hit a number of top players, including defensive linemen Maxx Crosby, Christian Wilkins and Malcolm Koonce. The running game, with Josh Jacobs having signed with the Green Bay Packers in the offseason, was the NFL's worst.
And then there was the quarterback position. Aidan O'Connell has shown he can win games in the NFL, but taking a team to the playoffs is far less certain.
The Raiders' problems, in other words, go far beyond the coach.
Which might be why Pierce could receive the benefit of the doubt from management. He certainly has the players' support. They were instrumental in Pierce getting the job after he went 5-4 as the interim coach last season.
That support didn't waver even as the losses piled up. The Raiders kept playing hard, and players reiterated after Sunday's 34-20 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers and again Monday that they backed their coach.
“I feel like he's responsible for the character of the team,” cornerback Nate Hobbs said. “His character alone at times carried this team. We bought in and believed in him.”
Quarterback regrets
One of Pierce's first acts upon becoming the interim coach was installing O'Connell as the starting quarterback.
But after the Raiders signed Gardner Minshew to a two-year, $25 million free-agent contract in March, O'Connell was forced to compete for the position. Minshew was named the starter in training camp before Pierce went back to O'Connell when Minshew struggled.
Pierce said Monday he should have gone with O'Connell from the beginning.
“I made that decision and obviously we made a decision to move on from Gardner after Week 5, I believe,” Pierce said. “Then things just kind of went left and right after that.”
O'Connell's chances of keeping the job increased after Las Vegas won two late-season games. Instead of a realistic shot of drafting Colorado's Shedeur Sanders or Miami's Cam Ward, the Raiders will pick sixth in the NFL draft, meaning both quarterbacks will likely be gone by the time their selection comes up.
“I think with Aidan, what you’re seeing is somebody that has finally played 17 games,” Pierce said. “Not one time has he went in as a Day One starter. He’s been either thrown in the game or coaching change or benched quarterback. So what does that look like maybe when he has a whole offseason as the guy?”
Major loss
Pierce hasn't blamed his team's struggles on injuries, but he said the preseason injury to Koonce was tough to take.
Koonce had six sacks in the final four games in 2023 and was expected to bookend Crosby and form one of the NFL's top pass-rushing tandems. But Koonce tore an ACL before the season opener and was placed on injured reserve.
“If there’s one injury that really frustrated and hurt me this year, it was Malcolm because he had a hell of a training camp, really, a hell of an offseason,” Pierce said. “Then we go into training camp, and he’s looking really, really good. ... When he went down that Thursday, it hurt our team. You felt it. You felt the emotional drop within the building, and it was a sad moment.”
Face of the franchise
Pierce was literally cheered by Raiders fans at the end of the 2023 season.
Not so much in 2024.
“When you take this job and when you are in front of this room and in front of the building, in front of the organization, the face of the organization, you take the good and the bad,” Pierce said. “When we win, everybody’s, ‘AP, AP’. When you lose, ‘Get rid of his (butt).’ I get it. That’s the nature of the beast. It was no different when I played.”
Next steps
The Raiders have more than $107 million in salary cap space, according to Over the Cap, giving them the ability to be aggressive when it comes to signing free agents.
“Got to make dollars and cents for everybody, not just for the Raiders, but for the players as well, understanding the business side of that,” Pierce said. “But these gentlemen, I thought all year, played their tails off, some deserving of a contract and others we probably have to move on from.”
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Mark Anderson, The Associated Press
