With their 19-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday, the Las Vegas Raiders extended their losing streak to eight consecutive games, are 2-10 and will miss the playoffs for the third year in a row and 20th time in 22 seasons.
They have no long-term answer at quarterback, the roster is devoid of playmakers outside of rookie tight end Brock Bowers and edge-rusher Maxx Crosby, and head coach Antonio Pierce does not seem to be the answer on the sidelines.
It is a grim outlook, and it is also probably time for another complete reset with the most important parts of the team.
Let’s start with Pierce as the team’s head coach.
He took over for Josh McDaniels halfway through the 2023 season and did enough down the stretch (5-4) to have the interim tag removed. While it is rare for head coaches to be fired after just one season, and while this season may not be entirely Pierce’s fault, it is difficult to make a compelling argument for why they should not think about looking outside of the organization for other options.
For one, Pierce has made some truly baffling decisions in games this season, including Friday’s loss to the Chiefs. That does not even get into the indecisiveness and revolving door of starting quarterbacks.
Two of the biggest blunders on Friday came in the fourth quarter.
The first came with just over 12 minutes to play when he accepted a five-yard penalty following a Patrick Mahomes incomplete pass on 2nd-and-15. Instead of declining the penalty and giving the Chiefs a 3rd-and-15 situation, Pierce accepted it to make it 2nd-and-20 in an effort to try to make a potential field-goal attempt a little more difficult.
But all it did was give Mahomes an extra down to get the first down, and he took advantage of it by completing 15-yard pass to give the Chiefs a more manageable 3rd-and-5 situation, which they easily converted. The Chiefs ended up kicking a field goal anyway to retake the lead.
Later in the game with the Raiders facing a 4th-and-10 on the Chiefs 40-yard line with just over two minutes to play, he burned an important timeout after sending out the punt team and then changing his mind and electing to try a field goal. Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson ended up missing his third field goal of the game on the attempt. The miss certainly hurt, but it was a 58-yard attempt and far from automatic. Wasting the timeout was almost even more damaging for the Raiders’ chances.
Unless the Raiders think decisions like that are going to dramatically change, or that Pierce is the long-term answer, this offseason would be the ideal time to try to find that long-term answer.
This offseason is likely to result in the Raiders drafting a quarterback at the top of the draft, whether it be Miami’s Cam Ward or Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders.
The worst thing an NFL team can do for a young quarterback is put them into a situation where they are constantly changing coaches early in their career and not giving them any consistency. It is the same mistake teams like the Chicago Bears keep making, and most recently made by bringing back Matt Eberflus for the start of this season. As soon as the Bears made the decision to move on from Justin Fields and draft Caleb Williams, they should have just ushered in a completely new era with a new head coach.
It seems inevitable that within a year or two the Raiders are going to be changing coaches again anyway. You know you are going to be picking a new quarterback. Give that quarterback a new coach who can grow with them.
