REPORT: Is Raiders Owner Mark Davis a Part of the Problem?

The Las Vegas Raiders have struggled drafting correctly, hiring the right coaches and winning games over the last decade. Is owner Mark Davis a part of the problem with the Silver and Black?

Jan 5, 2025; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis reacts during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

While there has been little fingerpointing internally within the Las Vegas Raiders regarding the team's shortcomings over the past two seasons, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports places the blame on owner Mark Davis.

While it is debatable who is the most at fault, as there is plenty of blame to go around, the Raiders have fired multiple general managers, head coaches under Davis. They have torn down and tried unsuccessfully to build and sustain a quality roster.

"Another year, another head coach, all in the pursuit of the fading, yellowing images of what a franchise used to be and how it might be again," Robinson said. "All setting the stage for the next chapter of the Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders, whose biggest problem is not a head coach or quarterback, but an owner who keeps Xeroxing the identity of his father, Al Davis, rather than meaningfully and patiently crafting one of his own.

"It’s an imitation game under Mark Davis that is now five copies deep and bleached into nothingness — from Dennis Allen to Jack Del Rio, Jon Gruden to Josh McDaniels, and now Antonio Pierce to whoever Davis believes gets his team and legacy closer to a heyday that has sparsely appeared since the turn of the century. That will be six head coaches Davis has hired in the 13 years since he took over the franchise after his father’s death. All of whom came in espousing their own personal understanding about what it meant to be a Raider and promising to recapture a proud history that was growing more distant by the year.

Robinson notes that his feelings about Davis are not because of the recent firing of former head coach Antonio Pierce. However, like many others, Robinson felt the Raiders did not supply Pierce with nearly enough to produce a winning team.

Multiple things can be true simultaneously. Pierce deserved to be fired, but he also had one of the worst rosters in the National Football League and arguably the worst group of quarterbacks.

"To be clear: This isn’t a criticism of Pierce's firing," Robinson said. "It is a condemnation of the process that created this juncture. Beginning with Davis rebooting the team under Pierce in 2023, after convening with Maxx Crosby, Davante Adams, and Josh Jacobs — two of whom aren’t on the roster anymore — and then choosing a head coach who is now gone, too.

"All setting in motion a 2024 path that veered into a crater — starting with a failure to secure a real answer at quarterback for Pierce, then ending with sending him out to address the media one day before he found out he was being fired. It was a situation so awkward inside the team's headquarters that, according to sources who spoke with Yahoo Sports, Pierce had already started discussing potential coaching staff changes hours before he learned he was losing his job."

The Raiders have plenty of issues to figure out this offseason. Hopefully, their recent changes to the general manager and head coach positions help them move in the right direction.

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