The Las Vegas Raiders appear to have finally turned a corner under new head coach Klint Kubiak. After the team made the playoffs in the 2021 season, it looked like they were heading in the right direction.
Instead of promoting interim head coach Rich Bisaccia, the Raiders decided to hire Josh McDaniels as head coach. It was a move that was disliked by the fan base from the beginning. He needed to have success immediately, or it was going to be a hostile environment.
Unfortunately, he took a playoff team and turned them into a 6-11 team in his first season. It was all downhill from there, and McDaniels was fired halfway through his second season. While the Raiders players haven’t opened up much about what exactly went wrong, it was very clear that they were happy when he got let go.
The Raiders are facing McDaniels and the New England Patriots in Week 5, and former offensive lineman Richie Incognito believes that the players will have extra motivation to beat their former coach.
“I’ll tell you what’s going to be a motivating factor for these Raiders,” Incognito said on the “Initial Contact” podcast. “It’s going back and getting payback on Josh McDaniels because what Josh McDaniels did to this team for two years. He disrespected everybody on this team. He alienated everybody on this team. He lorded over them.”
Incognito Says Players Have Stories
It’s surprising that more stories haven’t leaked from McDaniels’ tenure with the Raiders. According to Incognito, there are plenty of stories, but he thinks it’s more disrespectful not to say or leak anything.
“Yeah, Josh you’re a great offensive coordinator, but you will never work outside New England,” Incognito said. “You reneged on the Indianapolis Colts job. You get the Raiders job, and you come in and you lord over everybody. ‘Listen, I have these Super Bowl rings. You guys don’t know how to win.’ It rubbed all these people the wrong way and you know how you know how I know that Raiders players [and] Raider Nation hates Josh McDaniels? They don’t even talk about him. No one’s even talked about him.
“Those boys have stories from McDaniels that would blow people’s minds how bad he treated this team and the ultimate sign of disrespect is we don’t even talk about it. So I know that there are guys on this team that played for Josh McDaniels that want to go hand him an L up there in Foxboro. You guys can celebrate the tuck rule all you want. We’re going to be celebrating going up there and kicking this guy’s (expletive).”
Are Raiders Players Really That Mad at McDaniels?
It’s hard to imagine there’s too much extra motivation this week for the Raiders. They already beat McDaniels last year. That said, it’s hard to know how much hate there is between the players who were on the team at the time and McDaniels.
Regardless, Incognito knows a lot of the players on the Raiders’ roster, so if he’s saying there’s still tension there, there almost certainly is.
Ex-Raider Richie Incognito Rips Into Josh McDaniels