LAS VEGAS – I’ve seen enough. After losing their seventh game in a row on Sunday, it’s time for the Raiders to relieve head coach Antonio Pierce and GM Tom Telesco of their duties.
The last 20 or so years of Raiders football has brought forth a handful of moments that could be considered rock bottom for an NFL franchise. The latest development we got from league insiders on Monday afternoon felt as damning as any we’ve seen in recent memory.
The Raiders reportedly went out of their way to sign now ex-Giants QB Daniel Jones after Gardner Minshew went down for the season with a broken collarbone on Sunday. Jones, who is quite literally failing out of the league, decided even he was too good to come to Vegas and waste whatever talents he has on the sinking ship full of Raiders. Keep in mind, Jones was playing scout team safety in the Meadowlands a week ago.
The locker room swears up and down whenever questioned that the team’s culture hasn’t wavered and that they are fully behind Pierce. The truth is, the locker room seemingly is very much behind Pierce and the current regime behind the scenes. Which is part of the problem. The player’s input is almost entirely responsible for the Raiders’ hiring of Pierce. It was Maxx Crosby and company’s insistence that pushed Mark Davis’ hand. It’s time for Davis to step up and rectify that misjudgement.
Davis has already laid the foundation for the Raiders’ turnaround by selling Tom Brady a stake in team ownership in addition to giving him overwhelming control of the team’s football operations. I’m sure Davis knows by now that Brady is going to be vetting his own head coach and GM candidates for next season (if he doesn’t go full Jerry Jones himself). The presumption is that Brady will bring in names he’s familiar with, think Mike Vrabel, thus making Davis and Telesco lame duck employees as we speak.
So, what exactly are we waiting for? The Raiders understandably didn’t opt to shake things up going into a short week for a Black Friday game going into Kansas City, but with a few extra days off coming after that, it’s hard to imagine much of a drawback to making the inevitable offseason move with a few games to go in the regular season. Ideally, it would give Brady a chance to view this roster with an unbiased lens over the last month of the season and allow him to properly decide which players should be saved from the sinking ship by Brady’s Ark.
Another reason I believe ripping the band-aid off now would be beneficial is because the Raiders currently own possession of the second overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Telesco’s finest hour in his short tenure came in the 2024 draft with his selections of Brock Bowers and Jackson Powers-Johnson, but if Brady is going to be the de facto decision maker moving forward, it makes little sense to keep Telesco’s philosophy in the building.
Telesco hasn’t done an entirely terrible job overall, largely owing to his success during the draft. That will probably allow him to age well in the perception of Raiders fans. But for that to happen, he should be let go so Raiders fans are allowed to divorce themselves from the stink of this season. If you’re giving Brady full control, give him full control. Too many cooks spoil the broth.