My Top 5 Head Coaching Candidates For The Las Vegas Raiders

If I had to put money on it, I would say this is Antonio Pierce's last game. Now, the more I think about it, look I am sad and it's not because, it's not just because I like Antonio Pierce or because like, oh he's a Raider fan and I wanted to work and he was the interim and blah blah blah. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I don't think a lot of what went wrong this season was on him. Although, it still just doesn't feel right. There's something really off about the way he manages the games with or without all his starters out there. The starting Minshew over Aiden thing is going to be studied for the rest of human existence. It still makes zero sense to me and if he was pressured into doing it he should have went right to the owner and said, dude we're gonna, this is gonna cost us games if I'm forced to listen to the offensive coordinator and the GM. Because he's got all this vibrato but then he coaches the game scared and he makes scared decisions personnel wise. And somebody asked him in a recent press conference, what did you learn about yourself this season? And he said pretty quickly, go with my gut, believe in yourself. I don't know if I'm reading too much into it but that feels like he was thinking maybe I should have got rid of Getze sooner and I should have started Aiden off the rip. Now to be fair to AP, he tried to pull the trigger after five games. He was like we're going Aiden and then Aiden gets hurt. Okay, you can't control the injuries. I just want to make myself clear when I say that I think we need to move on from AP, it's not because I don't think that maybe if we stay the course we can get to a competitive spot in the division. It's just that in my personal opinion, there are better coaching candidates out there. And with that being said, it's time folks to rank my top five potential head coaching candidates for the Las Vegas Raiders. It's a moment you've all been waiting for. We're going to go five to one because I want to keep it a little bit of suspense. Is it Rabel? Is it Ben Johnson? Is it a mystery candidate? Number five. And just so you know, I'm starting at five. So this is my fifth most favorite choice. This doesn't mean like I want this guy to be hired. If they hired him, I'm going to be like, I don't know. There's not a lot of great head coaching options out there. However, there's a guy out there that's won a Super Bowl that's led his team to multiple. A little bit older, but runs around like a 25 year old. And his name is Pete Carroll. Guys, he's out there. I don't know if he'd be willing to take the Vegas job, but if we fire AP and we strike out on some higher candidates on my list here, Pete Carroll is a proven commodity that will get you to win enough games to at least have a competitive and entertaining season. He was able to pull off one of the better trades in recent memory. Trading Russell Wilson, gaining back assets and picks and Geno Smith. And Geno Smith is better than Russell Wilson. Pete Carroll knows how to motivate guys, how to push the right buttons. He's not my preferred choice. He's not in my top four, my top three, but he's definitely number five. Number four, young up and coming offensive coordinator who squeezed every little bit of juice out of the post Tom Brady Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And that is Liam Cohen. This guy wasn't on my radar before this past season, but now with Baker Mayfield, I think he's third in the league in touchdowns. And this is after Chris Godwin got hurt out for the season. This is after they put in this rookie running back that nobody's ever heard of called Bucky Irving. Liam Cohen absolutely knows what he's doing on offense. The reason why he isn't ahead of these other guys is because he hasn't done it on the biggest stages. He's done it well in the regular season and in the playoffs they look okay, but I've seen these other guys coach at a high level, whether it's a position coach or a head coach, more so than Liam Cohen has. And it's risky to go offensive, young, mediocre, what is that word? Meteoric rise guru with Liam Cohen when he isn't at the same level as these top two guys. The reason why I skipped three is because my third choice to be the head coach is Antonio Pierce. I have Pete Carroll, Liam Cohen, and then I have my top two, and then right in the middle is AP. I do think, I don't like to throw the word deserve, nobody deserves anything, right? I do think you can make a compelling case that any of the good stuff that happened this season is because of Antonio Pierce, and any of the bad stuff is because of Gardner Minshew and Luke Getsy, and the idea that we got a lot of people hurt, and that even when the season's over this team plays hard as hell for him. You can't deny that. So you can convince me that there is a world where Mark Davis and Telesco and Tom Brady go, let's run it back one more season with AP. And I would be disappointed at the idea of not getting these top two guys, but I would not be completely upset if we brought him back. And that is just me maybe preparing for the scenario in which they do do that, but it's not all AP's fault. He wanted to hire Cliff Kingsbury, Cliff wanted a three-year deal, but that was impossible because AP only has a two-year deal. That's not AP's fault. He wanted to trade up for Jayden Daniels. They tried to get it done, the commander said obviously not. That's not AP's fault. They wanted to draft Michael Penix. They thought Michael Penix would fall. There was an agreement between the Vikings and the Broncos and the Raiders. The Broncos would take Bowe, we'll take Penix, the Vikings would take McCarthy. Falcon straight up, all hell breaks loose. Vikings straight up, it's a nightmare. All that to say, I do not think he'll be back next year, but if he is, I'm okay with it. Although my number two and one options are my number one and two options. Number two, and I go back and forth on these two and you guys know who it is, but number two right now, I'm just going to say Ben Johnson at number two, only because Vrabel has won a coach of the year award. He's shown that he can run an organization at a high level and maximize his offensive and defensive talent. If we hire Ben Johnson instead of Mike Vrabel, I'll be going bananas. I'll be extremely happy. I guess I'll talk about them both right now. Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson, if you get one of these guys in the interview room, you cannot let them leave the building. I believe in my heart of hearts that Ben Johnson can be one of these next Shanahan, McVay, LaFleur type guys. We're going to be talking about the Ben Johnson coaching three when it's all said and done. However, just because I believe it doesn't mean it's guaranteed to have happened. Mike Vrabel has quite literally shown how good he can be as a head coach, which is the only reason why I have him above Ben Johnson, but honestly it's one A and one B. Now people will say Mike Vrabel needs a good OC. Well, he hired Matt LaFleur and Arthur Smith. They both got head coaching jobs. Then he struck out with Todd Downing. So he's two for three in finding those guys. I've already said Wes Welker and Josh McCown. Those are my two options. If Vrabel gets hired and he brings in Todd Downing, I'm going to be extremely upset. Although I don't foresee that happening. I don't think Mark Davis would let that happen. I do think these are the five options that are most likely for the Raiders. I don't know if they're going to look for an Aaron Glenn. I don't know if they're going to look at a Todd Munkin. John Gruden's name has been thrown out there. I just think that ship has sailed. I don't think he's a great evaluator of talent and I don't think he'd be willing to let Telesco make the draft picks. But these are my five options right now. Pete Carroll at five, Liam Cohen at four, AP at three, Ben Johnson at two, Mike Vrabel at one. Let me know your thoughts. I want to see your top fives and I'll read them next week, a lot of them. Now look, Black Monday's coming up. Is there a world in which AP's just still the coach? I do think there's a chance. If I had to set the odds, if I had to set a percentage, I would say 35% chance he's the head coach. I would say, and I'm not trying to equate this to 100%, I'm just giving chances. I would say it feels like 65 to 70% chance that Vrabel's the next head coach. Ben Johnson feels in the low 30s. Liam Cohen feels like he's in the low 30s. Pete Carroll feels a little bit more likely than Liam Cohen, in my humble opinion, or even Ben Johnson. Seems like a Mark Davis higher. I just don't know if Pete Carroll would be interested in that job. But yeah, those are my top five head coaching candidates.