In the midst of a 2-10 season that has been terribly disappointing, there is a ton of speculation that the Las Vegas Raiders could move on from head coach Antonio Pierce after just one season on the job.
Pierce took over from Josh McDaniels last season and went on to post a 5-4 record over the final nine games, which led to him getting the full-time gig in 2024. But the Raiders haven't been anywhere near as competitive this season and have already been eliminated from playoff contention with five games left.
Pierce's seat isn't just hot because of the Raiders' record. The Raiders head coach and his staff have made several baffling decisions throughout the course of the season, also.
During the Thursday Night Football broadcast last week, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer revealed that the Raiders' coaching staff has "been given no assurances" for 2025, and there is a lot of "uncertainty" in the building. Many around the league believe Pierce could be "one-and-done as a head coach," Breer adds.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty certainly that’s being felt on the part of the coaching staff,” Breer said. “They’ve been given no assurances on 2025. There’s a lot of buzz league wide that Antonio Pierce could be one-and-done as a head coach.”
Breer goes on to somewhat defend Pierce, noting that the Raiders are still playing hard and how young the roster is. He also mentions new part-owner Tom Brady, who could have a say in what direction the team goes.
“Now on the flip side, as you guys could see tonight, [Pierce] has the team playing very hard,” Breer added. “They’ve gotten younger. They’ve gone from having the third oldest roster in the league last year, to the sixth youngest this year. Those young guys are developing. And the move to Scott Turner as OC seems to have really worked for him, but the one thing we don’t know is how involved Tom Brady would be in any sort of decision Mark Davis makes on this going forward.”
While Breer doesn't outright say Pierce is done, the fact that the coaching staff is worried and there is buzz around the league that the Raiders could make a change shows there is most certainly a chance Las Vegas moves on.
The Raiders are facing a transition period in 2025, as not only is Brady coming aboard, but the team stands to have a high enough pick in next year's draft to secure one of the top signal-callers in the class.
Las Vegas has to decide if Pierce is the right guy to take them forward, because the last thing this franchise wants to do is make a coaching change early on in a young quarterback's tenure.
From what we've seen through 13 weeks of this season, it doesn't look like Pierce is the guy. The Raiders need to go in a different direction in 2025, and that's what we expect them to do.
