Getty Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels.
A miserable season ended in the worst way possible for the Las Vegas Raiders. After taking the San Francisco 49ers to overtime last week, the team could not replicate that success against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Raiders were dominated in every facet of the game from the first drive. To make matters worse, the Chiefs had a massive fan advantage in Las Vegas.
Nobody expected the Raiders to win this game. They have nothing left to play for while Kansas City was gunning for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. However, the team has been competitive all season so coming out and getting embarrassed by a division rival to end the season is about as bad as it gets. Head coach Josh McDaniels has been told that he’s keeping his job heading into next season.
That’s not stopping fans from trying to get owner Mark Davis to make a change. With the season officially over, fans made a final plea for the team to fire McDaniels.
It’s never too late.
Josh McDaniels isn’t Andy Reid, let’s just fire him until we find out Andy Reid. It’s pointless otherwise.
Please please pleaseeee fire Josh mcdaniels @Raiders #RaiderNation 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Raiders Likely Aren’t Going to Make a Move Yet
While the game against the Chiefs was about as bad as it could get for the Raiders, the team didn’t really have anything to play for. Sure, it would’ve been nice to stop a divisional foe from getting the No. 1 seed but there was no way a banged-up Raiders defense was going to slow down Patrick Mahomes. At the end of the day, this loss likely has very little bearing on McDaniels’ future with the team.
If Davis does decide to fire the coach, it will be for many more reasons than a Week 18 loss. At this point, it’s hard to imagine the Raiders making a move. By benching Derek Carr, Davis showed that he was committed to McDaniels. Like it or not, Carr is the scapegoat for this season but Saturday’s loss proves that the problems go far beyond the quarterback. The coaching was abysmal for much of the season but the Raiders have major flaws all over the roster. McDaniels will get a chance to fix it but his leash will be considerably shorter next year.
McDaniels Acknowledges He Has to Be Better
There were major concerns when the Raiders decided to hire McDaniels this offseason. His brief tenure as the head coach of the Denver Broncos is the stuff of legends. He’s had a lot of success as an offensive coordinator but he has yet to prove he can be a competent head coach. He took a team that went 10-7 and made the playoffs last season and turned them into a 6-11 laughingstock. For his part, McDaniels acknowledged that he has a lot of work to do to be a better coach.
“We are what we are,” McDaniels said after the game. “I know there’s things I can do better and I’m going to evaluate myself first and try to do a better job of what I’m doing and what I’m responsible for and I’m going to try to do that with our entire team.”
It’s still possible McDaniels can make it work after tweaking some things on the roster. However, it’s safe to say that fans aren’t confident that he’ll figure it out.