Raiders' Antonio Pierce on the Biggest Lessons He Has Learned Since Becoming HC

Few head coaches in the National Football League have had the type of rise to the top that Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce has. He opened up about some of his biggest lessons since being promoted.

Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Antonio Pierce / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

Last season, the Las Vegas Raiders had one of the most eventful seasons of any team in the National Football League.

After firing Josh McDaniels halfway through the season, the Raiders promoted former Linebackers Coach Antonio Pierce. He would help steady a team that was headed nowhere fast, and while the Raiders still had room for improvement under Coach Pierce’s leadership last season, the team played with much more passion and urgency than before his promotion. 

While Pierce had coached on the high school and collegiate level, he had yet to be a head coach professionally. The final nine games of last season were a crash course of how to be an NFL head coach for Pierce. Pierce guided the Raiders to a 5-4 record over the second half of last season and was a few strokes of bad luck away from finishing 6-3 or even possibly 7-2. Still, almost does not count in the NFL. 

After having the interim tag removed earlier this offseason, Pierce immediately went to work, fixing as many of the problems from last season as he could. The Raiders’ roster and coaching staff desperately needed changes for Pierce not just to get close but to take significant steps toward the playoffs this upcoming season.  He recently opened up about some of his most prominent lessons since becoming an NFL head coach. 

“Patience,” Pierce said. “Don't rush the decisions. Don’t be emotional; don’t get emotional because you will make a lot of bad decisions. At the end of the day, just sit there and digest and understand that training camp is such. 

“These guys have had six practices in pads, getting together, building a team. Let’s be honest. We don’t even have our full roster yet. We’ve got some guys on the [Physically Unable to Perform list]. So, just really being patient. Not rushing, not overreacting, more importantly and really trying to block out the outside noise and just focus on our team.”

As Pierce begins his first full season as a coach in the NFL, he will undoubtedly depend on the lessons he learned during the second half of last season and his first offseason as a head coach to help him through the upcoming season. If he is as much of a student of the game as a coach as he was as a player, the outlook for the Raiders is a bright one.

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