Getty Josh McDaniels with Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis.
Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis had a tough decision to make at the end of last season. Interim head coach Rich Bisaccia led the team to an unprecedented playoff run, which was only the second time they’d been to the playoffs since 2002. Despite that, Davis decided to move on from the coach and hire former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
It was a defensible decision at the time. Though the Raiders made the playoffs, they had to do it by winning four-straight one-score games. Bisaccia is a respected special teams coach but those types of coaches don’t typically get head coaching jobs. Davis wanted to move on from the Jon Gruden era and he had to move on from Bisaccia to make that happen.
However, the Raiders are 0-3 under McDaniels and things aren’t looking great. If the team continues to struggle, many will question if he’s the right guy going forward. In fact, some already believe the team made a mistake. Veteran NFL analyst Ross Tucker questioned how the team would look if Bisaccia was head coach right now.
“I think it’s fair to wonder what their record would be with Rich Bisaccia as the head coach,” Tucker said on “The Ross Tucker Podcast.” “Remember down the stretch they won all those close games and made the playoffs?”
Tucker then definitively said that Bisaccia would’ve been the better choice and called out Davis.
“Mark Davis thought he was too good for Bisaccia,” Tucker said. “This is not really a big Josh McDaniels talking point. I just thought Bisaccia had earned the opportunity to continue coaching that football team. I feel like Mark Davis blew it. In the small sample, I thought Bisaccia had done very well.”
Would the Raiders be 0-3 if they gave Rich Bisaccia the head coaching job? 🤔
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Should Raiders Have Hired Bisaccia?
Bisaccia may not have landed a head coaching job this offseason but is thriving as the new special coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. He’s helped turn one of the NFL’s worst special teams units into a very good one. While he clearly knows how to coach special teams, it’s understandable why Davis was apprehensive to give him the full-time head coaching job.
The Raiders caught lightning in a bottle last season. Their style of winning wasn’t sustainable. The team had a -65 point differential, which was 10th-worst in the league. Bisaccia deserves a lot of praise for what he did and how he is able to lead a team. That said, it’s far from a guarantee the Raiders would be any better with him as the head coach right now.
Davis Is Going to Be Patient With McDaniels: Report
Many are ready to proclaim McDaniels a flop and some fans have even called for him to get fired. There’s no doubt the Raiders are the most disappointing team in the NFL but firing the head coach isn’t going to turn the season around right now. Davis knows and he’s going to be patient as McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler get the team in order, per Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network.
“This team, if you look really closely, is not set up right to succeed,” a league source told Wilson. “It’s going to take time and patience and getting more of the players that Josh and Dave want in there before they can really be competitive. They’re in a loaded division that has great quarterbacks and they inherited a mess. There are a lot of good reasons why Mayock and Gruden are no longer there. This is a heavy lifting job for Josh and Dave. It’s not a quick-fix situation. The owner, Mark Davis, understands that and is on board with what they’re doing. It’s hard to watch right now, though.”
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Raiders ‘Blew It’ by Not Hiring Other Head Coaching Candidate, per Analyst