Getty Brian Flores with Doug Marrone.
Even though the Las Vegas Raiders are in the playoffs, they have yet to make a decision about their future at head coach. Interim head coach Rich Bisaccia has done a good job but the team isn’t allowed to hire him until they’ve satisfied the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which will require them to interview at least one minority candidate. While there are many who would like to see Bisaccia keep the job, there’s no guarantee that it will happen.
There are some strong candidates that have become available to the Raiders who have much more experience as head coaches. Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh appears to be the favorite to take over the job but that doesn’t mean he’ll be the only candidate to get consideration. The Miami Dolphins pulled off a shocker when they fired head coach Brian Flores. After a 5-11 first year, Flores went 19-14 over the last two seasons. He should be one of the most appealing candidates on the market. The Raiders have a playoff game on Saturday but Fox Sports Colin Cowherd believes that the team should hire the coach sooner rather than later.
“If I owned the Raiders, I’d hire Brian Flores today,” Cowherd said on The Herd. “With all due respect to the interim guy because maybe he earned a job, too. He did a great job. If you want to give the interim guy the coach, great. If not, I got two guys I want to talk to: [Jim] Harbaugh and Brian Flores.”
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Would Flores Be a Fit With Raiders?
Flores put together the first back-to-back winning seasons for the Dolphins since the early 2000s. This season, the team started 1-7 before going 8-1 to finish the year. It’s telling that he was able to keep his team on track despite the terrible start and he did it with average quarterback play from Tua Tagovailoa.
Flores knows how to coach and is only 40-years-old so there’s a lot ahead of him. His expertise is on the defensive side of the ball and could do a lot to help the Raiders improve on that side of the field. Las Vegas has a young roster so bringing in a younger coach could be a smart play. He also won’t be demanding personnel control, which Harbaugh likely would.
Has Flores Done Enough to Prove He’s Better Than Bisaccia?
Flores is an exciting young coach and what he did with a struggling Dolphins team was impressive. He could be an amazing emerging talent. However, it could be a hard sell to move on from Bisaccia to install Flores. The interim head coach went 7-5 this season and is going to the playoffs. While Flores has back-to-back winning seasons, neither season was good enough to get Miami in the playoffs. It’s impossible to know how he’ll coach in the playoffs.
Bisaccia is getting the chance to show what he can do this week against the Cincinnati Bengals. If the Raiders win, he would already have a more impressive playoff resume than Flores. Obviously, Harbaugh’s resume speaks for itself so it’s hard to fault owner Mark Davis if he hires him, but hiring Flores over Bisaccia may not be the right move.
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