Getty Josh McDaniels (left) of the Raiders and Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy
While he will exit the Raiders stage with his tail between his legs and a less-than-stellar Raiders record on his docket, Josh McDaniels will also exit with his $60 million contract intact, meaning he will get paid $40 million through 2027 to not coach the team.
And Cowboys star Micah Parsons is not happy about the coach’s contract.
On Wednesday, Parsons made his feelings known on X (formerly Twitter) about McDaniels’ contract in Las Vegas, calling coaching contracts a “scam.”
The original tweet about McDaniels and the Raiders came from sports and business podcaster Joe Pompliano. He noted that the Raiders are paying both McDaniels and former coach Jon Gruden, who parted ways with the team two years ago after emails showed he used misogynistic, homophobic and racist language.
Gruden had $40 million remaining on his deal and received an undisclosed settlement to part with Las Vegas.
“NFL coaching contracts are fully guaranteed,” Pompliano wrote. “So with the Raiders firing Josh McDaniels last night (and Jon Gruden resigning in ’21), they are now paying somewhere between $40M & $80M for them not to coach the team, depending on Gruden’s settlement. That’s poor money management.”
And Parsons responded: “But players can’t get fully guaranteed money lol !! S*** a scam!”
Josh McDaniels Did Not Deserve Raiders Contract
When it comes to McDaniels and his Raiders contract specifically, Parsons does have a point. Raiders fans are happy to see him go, but he is getting away with a bit of a scam in Las Vegas.
Problem is, one of McDaniels’ co-conspirators on the scam is the guy who agreed to pay him, Raiders owner Mark Davis. It was Davis who agreed to give him an outlandish, six-year, $60 million contract after the 2021 season, despite the fact that McDaniels had no success as a head coach during his first run with Denver.
McDaniels went 11-17 during his time with the Broncos. That’s not great. In his year-and-a-half with the Raiders, McDaniels went 9-16.
That’s a 20-33 career record, and it’s important to remember that the Broncos were 6-0 in McDaniels’ first six games. So, in his last 47 games, McDaniels has gone 14-33.
He did set an interesting record this week, though, as McDaniels became the only coach in NFL history to be fired by two different franchises (Broncos, Raiders) before finishing the second season of his contracts with them.
Patriots Coaches Have Poor History
Certainly, there should have been some caveats that came before the Raiders gave McDaniels his contract, given his record in Denver and the way things fell apart so quickly there.
He was younger then (just 32), but he clearly was out of his depth with the Broncos. There’s also the Patriots’ poor record of producing head coaches once they leave Foxborough: Matt Patricia, Bill O’Brien, Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Joe Judge … it’s a long list of failures.
Could it be that, perhaps, the success of these coaches had something to do with Tom Brady being on the field, and the inability to repeat that success in other places has something to do with Brady not being on the field in those other places? Sure seems so. McDaniels was hailed for his offensive genius for his work with Brady.
The Raiders offense was 30th in points and 31st in yards this season when McDaniels was fired.
It’d be a shock if McDaniels returns to the ranks of a head coach ever again. But do not worry, he’ll get $10 million per year through 2027. Parsons is right: Nice scam if you can get it.