Finally, some common sense has hit the Raiders. The Las Vegas Raiders have at long last rid themselves of Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler as the team has just been a total disaster over the last year and a half.
The Raiders are still going to suck, but at least they won’t be totally useless while doing it.
After a year and a half of just failing at every single expectation possible, the Las Vegas Raiders have finally moved on from head coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler as the pair is almost single-handedly responsible for the destruction of this football team. And, even though the firing date is a little weird, I don’t have any issue with it at all.
I’m sure Raiders fans are signing Hallelujah in the streets of Las Vegas right now as the knock off Patriots Way is finally done with Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler being show the door.
Alright, I know the timing of this firing is really weird and I wouldn’t have done it just hours after the trade deadline finished as that’s not only incredibly stupid to give two people control to make key roster decisions despite them only having hours left on their deals, but it also is well…no…it’s just fucking stupid.
But, Mark Davis does run this football team, so there’s no surprise there.
Anyway, as I said, firing McDaniels with the Raiders sitting in 3rd place in the division on 3-5 record (through also on a 2-game losing streak) really isn’t the world’s worst offense when you look at just that, but the Raiders just got blown out 26-14 on Monday Night Football against the Lions and they got humbled 30-15 against the Bears. Yes, they gave up 30 points to the Chicago Bears…
So, when you also see that McDaniels have the 31st ranked offense for yards gained/game (268.3), the 21st ranked offense for passing yards gained/game (198.3), the 32nd and dead last offense for rushing yards gained/game (70.0), and the 30th ranked offense for points scored/game (15.8), you can understand why Mark Davis thought it would be a decent idea to get rid of a guy who’s only claim to a head coaching job is that he was a great offensive coordinator.
Now, I’m not trying to take away from past accomplishments as New England’s OC for most of the Patriots dynasty’s latter reign as he was fantastic, but he had Tom Brady as his quarterback. All of the intricate, complicated, and perhaps poorly designed play calls that only a QB like Brady could pull off worked as…Brady was the QB.
Over the last year and a half with the Raiders, subpar quarterbacks like Jimmy Garoppolo, Derek Carr, and Aidan O’Connell haven’t been able to transcribe his play calls onto the field. But to be honest, I don’t even think his crap head coaching record (he’s went 9-16 as the Raiders HC), his terrible offenses, or his continuous strikeouts with starting quarterbacks was McDaniels worst trait.
No, I actually think it’s something far worse: his seemingly terrible player-coach relationships.
Seriously, almost every single star player the LV Raiders had from their 2021 Wild Card berth and at the start of McDaniel’s tenure in the Sin City, such as Devante Adams, Derek Carr, Jimmy Garoppolo, Max Crosby, Darren Waller, Hunter Renfrow, and Josh Jacobs, has had some falling out with the management/coaching staff that has either resulted in them getting less minutes, forcing them to hold our, or get traded altogether.
As I said, the Raiders were a good team in 2021 after Jon Gruden was fired and replaced with Rich Bisaccia as they overcame numerous off-field issues, won the final four games of their season to finish 10-7 and have their first winning season in five years, and then go toe-to-toe with the eventual AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals in their 26-19 Wild Card game defeat.
Was the team perfect? No, obviously not. But they were resilient and competitive as Derek Carr, Hunter Renfrow, Josh Jacobs, Darren Waller, Maxx Crosby, and the rest of their teammates were playing to the peak of their potentials under Bisaccia.
And then Mark Davis screwed all that up by bringing in Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler…who promptly traded away Derek Carr and Darren Waller after one season, reduced Hunter Renfrow’s role in the team to that of a glorified water boy, turned the 2023 leading rusher in Josh Jacobs into an incompetent back, shoehorned Jimmy Garoppolo into an offense that just doesn’t work for him, completely isolated Devante Adams, and has given Maxx Crosby the bare minimum of help on the defensive side of the ball.
So, yes, Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler had to be fired and let go, and to make this overhaul of the Raiders complete, Mark Davis needs to out the door with them.
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