In less than a week, "Black Monday" will open up roughly a half-dozen head coaching jobs in the National Football League. With another win, the Las Vegas Raiders moved further down in the first round. Now, they sit with the eighth pick, heading into the last game of the season, hosting the Los Angeles Chargers.
Lost in the mix is the rather odd situation of Antonio Pierce, after his team notched another win to boast a 4-12 record. He boldly holds court at the podium, looking for adulation. The Las Vegas Raiders average 18.1 points per game, sitting twenty-eighth in the league.
For all of the praise heaped upon Pierce during the two-game winning streak, people forgot about the struggles. The offense scores twenty or fewer points in twelve of their sixteen games. That includes four separate occasions of scoring fourteen points or less. It's the same offense that turned the ball over at least once per game on every outing this season. Basically, the Raiders field a subpar offense, and the fault resides with both Pierce and Tom Telesco.
They chose to replace Josh Jacobs with Zamir White, Alexander Mattison, and Ameer Abdullah. A triumvirate that combined, still hasn't reached the 1,000-yard threshold as a unit, and doesn't have a clear direction at quarterback. Although Antonio Pierce did say that Aidan O'Connell is a starting-caliber quarterback, he just didn't say it was for Las Vegas.
"I think Aidan O'Connell will be a starting NFL quarterback," said Pierce.
During media availability, Pierce uttered the above phrase, which should, along with a twelve-loss season, serve as the last straw. The loyalty from Pierce to O'Connell defies logic. O'Connell completes sixty-two percent of his passes, with a 6.7 yards per attempt clip.
That signifies a lack of vertical chances and a lack of faith in him. Yet, Pierce wants to attach himself to O'Connell. The same player that led to the Raiders pursuing Gardner Minshew to replace with. On talent evaluation alone, that should disqualify Pierce from running the sidelines.
In decades past, being the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders carried prestige, due to the team's success. Antonio Pierce lost sixteen of his first twenty-five games as the head coach.
Winning two meaningless, late-season games doesn't solve the problems with a broken team. With no offensive identity and a sparsely talented defense, the team needs a reset. With one year remaining on his two-year contract, no amount of bluster, catchphrases, and rah-rah speeches should save Pierce on Black Monday.
