Inside the Raiders Firing of Josh McDaniels

The Las Vegas Raiders underwent a massive house cleaning a little more than a week ago, and today we share some of the details.

HENDERSON, Nev.--Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis let Coach Josh McDaniels and General Manager Dave Ziegler go after assuring them they would return for the 2024 season.

Davis didn't lie, he evolved.

In growing as an owner, Davis recognized he didn't like what was happening to his beloved Silver and Black.

This article lays out for you what happened:

--When rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell started in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers after Jimmy Garoppolo was injured, seeds of frustration started to germinate when McDaniels did nothing to alter or change his "system” for the talented youngster.

--Internally, McDaniels explained that it was “the way to learn” his complicated offense, but many questioned it.

--When Garoppolo was injured again, and the Raiders went north to Chicago, people began to wonder what McDaniels would do.  

--There was excitement around the rookie, but team-wide, people didn’t want to see O’Connell thrown into a no-win situation again.

--McDaniels misread the room. Key players supported his approach of going with veteran Brian Hoyer against the Bears rookie, who had never thrown a division-one pass in college, let alone the NFL, and they wanted a win.

--While the loss wasn’t only on Hoyer, when the team lacked a spark, sources close to Davis say: “He was fuming about not moving on to the rookie.”

Mark Davis evolved as the on-owner with the Josh McDaniels situation, which should encourage Las Vegas Raiders fans / Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

--Davis was greatly concerned about the state of the team.  Specifically, where was the joy in being a Raider? Davis had been criticized by his legendary father, Al, for being close to the players, but to his credit, he understood it was about the players.

--Having been raised around the Silver and Black when they were at their best, the team was always having fun. Davis wanted stability more than anything, but also to see the joy in that stability. It wasn't there.

--The Raiders weren’t having any fun. Players didn’t want to talk or go out in public, and the owner couldn’t do that without getting bombarded.

--As one player said: “It didn’t bother Josh; he never left the building. I don't hate him, I like Josh, and I don't think he was tone deaf, but I think he was clueless.”

--The Thursday before the Monday Night game in Detroit, McDaniels, at the team’s regularly scheduled meeting, decided to let the team talk. McDaniels had heard Davis and his concerns, but didn't know the depth of the issues.

--“That type of meeting would have never happened in New England. Josh was trying; he wasn’t acting like Bill (Belichick), but some guys are not leaders of men,” was how one former New England Patriot described the meeting.

--Another player told me: “It wasn’t a we hate Josh meeting at all. I don't think anyone hated him. But he got his ass chewed, but so did everyone else. We all shared s—t that we didn’t like about coaches and players. Anyone saying it was all about Josh wasn't in the meeting.”

--The meeting was great for the team, but something changed.

--One player described McDaniels as: “Distant, hurt.”

--I asked if they thought it was his feelings. “No, I wouldn’t say that because everybody got their ass ripped. I don’t think he knew how unhappy, how miserable it was. No one was having any fun. I personally think he had no clue what it was like because he lives in his own bubble, his process and it wasn’t working.”

--Another Raider told me: “I thought the meeting was great. I felt better, like Josh had heard us, and we all had heard each other, but afterward, I knew it was probably f---ing worse. He was like out of it. Like when you gets hit in the face, like he didn’t know what was happening.”

--At the end of the meeting, McDaniels asked Antonio Pierce to talk. He wasted no time firing up the men.

--“AP started to talk, and it was like that old church movie when God spoke, The Ten Commandments; I mean, I felt like I was a little kid back in the Baptist church. We all were excited and ready to fight, but not each other. It was like, let’s gooooo.”

--Another player said: “When Coach (Antonio Pierce) spoke, it wasn’t an act. No notes, he had us, man. He talked about loving each other, the game and having fun. He supported Coach (McDaniels), and when he got done, that place went crazy. I knew him, but don’t play for him, and I told my teammate: ‘That f---ing man needs to be our coach.’”

--Pierce had spoken about his Giants team beating the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl and how they did it. No one gave the Giants a chance, not against the Patriots

--Pierce’s comments had one player describe it to me as: "It was like that old "Rocky" movie. He was loving boxing and having fun, and that big German (Russian) dude was all business, and Rock kicked his ass. He didn’t talk about that movie, but I see what he was saying. Love, fun, and hard work beat a job. They (the Giants) were Rocky; the Patriots were the German (Russian) dude. Pierce was telling us, but he didn’t mention the movie to be like "Rocky," not the German (Russian).”

--Rigidly, McDaniels went back to Garoppolo in Detroit.

--After that meeting, everyone saw a different McDaniels.

--Dave Ziegler differed from McDaniels on many issues. They had not always agreed at all. But McDaniels had the final say.

--Ziegler’s job was to execute the decisions that McDaniels made.

--Ultimately, despite strong disagreements, Ziegler was totally connected to McDaniels. He was, but inside the building, among some who knew that the two had disagreed, there was a desire for him to talk to Davis.

--Davis had been talking to players. Everyone knew it; it was not uncommon.

--While players expressed frustration, and it was clear there was no joy in playing for the Raiders, not one player expressed hatred and outrage at McDaniels. It simply wasn’t working the way it should.

--A day or two after the infamous Thursday meeting, McDaniels voiced to Antonio Pierce and others that he understood people referencing his time with New England, but that he had to get away from people always equating him as a Patriot. He was a Raider.  While some have equated the conversation with McDaniels correcting Pierce, that is not how one source very familiar with it described it to me. "It was more Josh bemoaning that no one saw him as a Patriot, not a Raider. Everyone appreciated what Antonio did. Josh was just down; he had been afraid of being fired, and he hadn't seen until that meeting how bad it was. He wasn't Bill (Belichick), but to me, he also wasn't being Josh."

--Josh was a Raider, but not for long.

--When Garoppolo’s play was not good, and he started the second half, everyone who was part of the organization not named Josh McDaniels was angry.

--The Raiders were lifeless, or better said, joyless.

--One player told me: “In Detroit, when you saw Dan Campbell (Lions Coach) go out on the field when a player was injured, you think Josh would do that? Do you f---ing think Josh McDaniels would go out on the field and check on a player? Not unless his process or system said to.”

--The player added: “I like Josh, the person, but he was a robot when it came to football, and that s—t doesn’t work.  We all saw and heard Dan Cambell the whole game, and we were like, 'What?'”

--Recently, another player told me: “Josh was not a bad dude. I don’t think he knows how to operate outside his system. When my buddy’s dad came home from prison after a long time, he didn’t know how to operate outside. He was lost. I don’t know, but I think New England was what he knew, and that was his prison. Outside that place, this ain’t that place, and I don’t think he knew what to do.”

--The Lions were having fun; the Raiders weren’t. At that moment, Davis began to go from hot to boiling.

--Getting on the plane home, Davis was convinced that he couldn’t allow his beloved Raiders to be a joyless representation of the team he loved.

--It was done.

--Many on the team had no idea what was happening.

--Early the following day, I got messages from players asking if it was true.

--No one was shocked that McDaniels had failed; the shock was that Davis fired him when he did.

--As one player said: “I love Mr. Davis and he loves us. More than the losing, I think he was upset that we were all so unhappy with the situation. We wanted it to work with Josh.”

--Davis moved immediately. He was going to give the general manger reins to Champ Kelly.

· There were two candidates to be the interim coach, wide receivers coach Edgar Bennett and linebackers coach Antonio Pierce.

--Both men are widely respected, but in Kelly’s mind, AP was the man.

--The decision was made.  

--Once the team was brought together and told, Pierce was emotional and gripped the room.

--“When AP finished, we all were like f—k yeah,” one Raiders player said, adding: “He talked about how special it is to be a Raider. It is a privilege. But one thing he didn’t talk about was himself.”

--Another player said, “He never once asked us to win him the job. Like Rich (Bisaccia), it was about us, the team, and the fans. As soon as that meeting was over, I was like, f—k yea, we are getting him this job.”

--AP made another critical choice. He worked on the treadmill nearly daily with quarterback coach Bo Hardegree, and Pierce made Hardegree the Offensive Coordinator.

--While both men are different in many ways, their friendship was built over a pure, unadulterated love for football. They saw the game from different perspectives, but they saw it the same. They saw it like Raiders, you have to attack.

--Hardegree knew you couldn't attack without a plan until the rookie quarterback Aiden O'Connell, who was named the starter, knew the scheme. McDaniels' system was complicated and had evolved over multiple years with the great Tom Brady. O'Connell was good, and both men believed in him and agreed that he should be allowed to lead the franchise.

--This game is a testosterone-fueled violent rage, and both men saw both sides of the ball the same way.  Football is a tactical and attacking sport.

--I asked Pierce about this and his answer was telling.

--"That was the conversation that goes back to walking around the building (with Hardegree) and getting to know one another, and really on a treadmill," Pierce said. "We do that right before practice and we continue to do that before practice. Keep our routine, don't change. We are who we are. And you can tell in the tone and when you ask questions, you can even talk about other opponents and the mindset and hearing him speak and talk, I thought it was just a good match. And you can see how players react to him and respond to him and how well he's done with Aidan [O’Connell] and just that whole quarterback group, and really in general. But he has a certain calmness about him, a little southern drawl. Totally different from AP, and I love it, because you need a little bit of yin and yang. But the mindset is to win, is to be aggressive, is to attack. I mean, you saw what we did last week and that's not going to change. Bo has my full support, Champ Kelly's full support, and the team has really rallied behind his philosophy and what he wants to do going forward.”

--It was done. In a short time, an owner had taken the next step, a general manager had done the same, a coach had followed suit, and the Raiders rose from the doldrums of failure.

--As one of my followers on YouTube said: “The Autumn Wind is a Raider, not a Patriot.”

--The Patriot Way was dead in the desert.

--A man born to be a Raider, and a fan of the Raiders growing up in California, was leading the team like a Raider.

--And the journey back to championships begins.

Mark Davis is a different owner. He is not the man he was when he moved on from Rich Bisaccia. He isn't the man who started the year.  His maturation as the owner should encourage Raider Nation.

It is now a new chapter in the Raider Nation biography. A new day, and the Raiders have their joy back, and it is no coincidence; it was tactical and attacking by an owner, a general manager and a coach.

The Silver and Black will remain at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to take on the New York Jets on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 8:20 p.m. EST/5:20 p.m. PST.

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