Raiders Fire Antonio Pierce And The Offseason Has Begun.

Well, one day removed from that very strange press conference where it felt like they were going to move forward with Antonio Pierce and everybody that wanted him gone was, you know, upset. Antonio Pierce is gone. He's fired. Now, flashback to me reacting to Josh McDaniels being fired. I was dancing on his grave. I was happy. I had my Backwards Darren McFadden shirt on. I had my sunglasses. I said, smarten up. I was celebrating. Look, I've been very clear about my stance on Antonio Pierce and him being fired. I think there are better options out there. It just is what it is. He deserved the shot. After what he did last year, things got worse. He has to quarterback play, whatever, injuries, whatever. He admitted yesterday that he wanted to start Aiden and didn't for whatever reason. He coached the games conservatively. There was a players and coaches meeting again in the middle of the season, and it did not go well. He did not improve as a head coach. He regressed, stayed the same or regressed, and it's unfortunate. I really wanted this to work. I had nothing invested in Josh McDaniels. I thought he would be better than he was, and he sucked, and I wanted him gone instantaneously, and I was happy the second that he got fired. I really, really, really wanted AP to work, and it didn't work, and now he's gone. I didn't expect him to be fired. If I would have put money on it after that press conference, I would have said that he's going to be the head coach, but there's an official statement here from the Las Vegas Raiders. It says the Las Vegas Raiders have relieved Antonio Pierce of his duties as head coach. We appreciate Antonio's leadership. First as interim head coach and this past season as the head coach, Antonio grew up a Raider fan, and his silver and black roots run deep. We are grateful for his ability to reignite what it means to be a Raider throughout the entire organization. We wish him nothing but the best in the future, and now here come the reports. There's going to be a lot said about Tom Brady and Tom Telesco steering the ship here, finding the next head coach. I don't know. There's a lot to discuss. I see Ben Johnson in a Raiders uniform cut him a blank check. I see Mike Rabel cut him a blank check. Look, there's so much to talk about. I want you to let me know in the comments what is the vibe here. What are you thinking? I want you to let me know down below. Is this a good move? Is this a bad move? Who do you want to replace him? I've seen a lot of people complaining about continuity. Here's what I'll say about that. A lot of this staff and a lot of this scheme that's been in place has been in place for three years. Patrick Graham and a lot of these assistant coaches were Josh McDaniel's hires. Some of them were good. Some of them not were good. We've had a little bit of change throughout, but there was a level of continuity and consistency. Again, I've stated over and over again, I like AP. I rooted for him to be the guy. There was a world where you can convince me not a lot of what went wrong this year was his fault. Ultimately, Tom Brady, Mark Davis, and Tom Telesco put their brains together and said, we can get a better coach here. Right off the bat, like I said, everyone's going to go Rabel and Johnson. If we hire one of those two guys, I'll be very, very excited. I'll be jumping for joy. I mentioned Pete Carroll. Some people think that's a bad idea. I don't know. All I've seen in my life is him win a bunch of games and coach in multiple Super Bowls. Now that we know how weird Russell Wilson can be at times, it's pretty impressive what Pete Carroll did. I mentioned Liam Cohen, who can be a potential suitor. Here's another option I'm just throwing out there, and this is just off the dome. This is me reacting in real time. I said Josh McCown as the offensive coordinator. Now he's obviously not ready to be the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Brian Flores is also on that staff. He has transformed the Vikings defense to be a very formidable one. What if we go Brian Flores, Josh McCown combo? Josh McCown brings the Kevin O'Connell offense. Brian Flores brings the Kevin O'Connell defense. And now we got a little mini Minnesota in Las Vegas. John Gruden will be thrown around. I don't think that's going to happen. I Now okay, I want to discuss just one thing that I've seen a lot of people comment, and I don't mean to be mean to the people who think this, but if you think this, I do think you need to check into a mental institution. I've seen over and over again, Mike Vrabel is just another version of Antonio Pearce. Let me ask you this, where does Antonio Pearce keep his Coach of the Year trophy? Let me ask you this, has Antonio Pearce coached a Ryan Tannehill-led football team to an AFC championship appearance against the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead and had a double-digit lead? In what stratosphere is Mike Vrabel comparable coaching-wise to Antonio Pearce? Sure, they are former players from the defensive side of the ball. That's it. Mike Vrabel out-coached Bill Belichick in a playoff game, used the NFL rulebook against Bill Belichick to the point where Bill Belichick didn't know the rules that Mike Vrabel knew, and he was screaming at the refs. Antonio Pearce doesn't know how to call timeouts, and Mike Vrabel is manipulating the rulebook to piss off Bill Belichick. Please stop commenting that. If you think that, kindly check into a mental institution. Ben Johnson, I really go back and forth on whether I want Vrabel or Johnson. Now, the Patriots are probably going to interview both of them, right? I know the Patriots are set up to interview Ben Johnson and Vrabel probably shortly after. I wouldn't want Aaron Glenn, I wouldn't want any of these defensive guys that aren't Mike Vrabel. I want a new offensive take with the Raiders. Todd Munkin's interesting. There's a lot of options out there, but from a strictly Antonio Pearce standpoint, the writing was on the wall pretty early this season with that players-only, or not players-only, players and coaches meeting, and honestly, I was out on AP the second he liked that Instagram post or that Twitter post about Devontae Adams. It was an anti-Devontae post, and he liked it. It doesn't matter how much of a prick or an asshole Devontae Adams is. NFL coaches shouldn't be on social media liking that ----. The second he did that, I was like, has his ego got to him? Has Antonio Pearce lost the plot on this whole thing? I think that might have been the case. I'm trying to scroll down here to read if there's any reports on potential guys that we can hire. Vinny threw out the name Pete Carroll. I think that's a real possibility, but I need comments below, and while you're commenting, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. I wouldn't go Robert Sala as the head coach, obviously, but as the, that's another thing we have to talk about. We're going to get new defensive and offensive coordinators, and it's going to be interesting to see who the head coach now brings in, because let's say we go Mike Rabel. He's going to have to find his next Matt LaFleur or Arthur Smith. Maybe he just convinces Arthur Smith to leave the Steelers and come coach our team. I wouldn't hate that. If he goes Todd Downing, I will cease to exist as a human being. I said a couple podcasts ago that this offseason was shaping up to be Patriots versus Raiders, and that is only heightened now. There is absolutely a world in which the Patriots and the Raiders are going after the same head coaching candidates, are going after the same three agents, potentially the same draft picks if we can get a quarterback to fall. Every day I wake up and I pray to the gods above that Drew Rowler decides to come out, and he falls right to six, because then we're cooking with gas. But yeah, man, Antonio Pierce is gone, and the offseason has officially begun. The Raiders' real season has begun. You're going to hear fast and furious reports of us interviewing different people. Now, I don't want your heads to explode if they interview everybody. They should do their due diligence. I know you're thinking another head coach will be fired. It's four head coaches in the last six years or whatever it is. I do think the difference now is that Mark Davis has a GM that can hire a head coach and the greatest football player to ever grace the earth in all the meetings and all the interviews. That's very important, not only to sift out the good candidates from the bad ones, but to sell the good candidates on the Raiders. You will have the backing of the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. That is very important. I would love to read some sort of article here. Antonio Pierce, let's see. I want to pull up an article here. I want to read something. I want to read something. I really did not think this was going to happen, guys. Okay, okay, okay. All right, so 60 minutes ago, this is Blue's report. Pete Carroll and Vrabel. Okay, here it is. Here we go. Now this is Fast and Furious. NFL rumors. Pete Carroll, Mike Vrabel, Liam Cohn linked to Raiders. So here is the article. Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is a name to keep in mind amid the Las Vegas Raiders head coaching search according to Vinnie Monsignor. Former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel and Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Cohn are also expected to draw interest from the Raiders. Carroll was fired after 14 seasons with the Seahawks following the 2023 campaign. Yada, yada, yada. The Raiders may have to compete with other teams for candidates. Vrabel is reportedly also seeing interest from the Bears, Saints, the Jets, and the Patriots. The Jacksonville Jaguars have already asked permission to interview Liam Cohn. Pete Carroll, who turned 74, I mean, he is older than that, but he presents younger, has expressed interest in pursuing the Bears job. There's a lot to read here. It will likely be up to Tom Telesco and Tom Brady whether or not to bring in Carroll for an interview. Tom Telesco is expected to remain with the Raiders following Pierce's firing. And that makes sense. I do think Tom Telesco has done a pretty good job. You know, the Gardner-Mitchelton glow up in his face. But now because of that, he's going to have a chance to maybe be drafted to the potential franchise quarterback. Again, pray to the gods that Penn State goes on a run here and comes out. Because I'm telling you right now, he's the guy. Not only is he a Telesco-type pick, but he's the guy that can change this thing moving forward. Keep Aidan on as a bridge starter or backup. Get another veteran in the room that isn't Gardner-Mitchell. You got to sure up the running game, get a number one wide out, and get healthy on defense and re-sign your guys. You run it back with the same offensive unit on the field. Go get your number one wide out, whether that's free agency or the draft. Get a running back, whether that's free agency or the draft, vice versa. You do one here, you do one over here. And you find a way to get one of these quarterbacks in the draft or sign Sam Darnold if they go one and done. That's my take on all this. My head coaching candidates in order of who I'd want, I would say Vrabel 1, Ben Johnson 2, that's 1A, 1B. Third would be Liam Cohen. Fourth would be Flores-Josh McCown combo. I would want them both together. Five would be Pete Carroll. Todd Munkin is interesting. Byron Leftwich is interesting. There's a lot of people out there. Aaron Glenn doesn't really move the needle for me. Who else could be out there? Who else could be out there? Cliff Kingsbury. I could see a world in which they run it back with Cliff. Trade for Kyler Murray, that'd be insane. I don't think they would do that. I think that the Cardinals... I think Cliff Kingsbury wrung all the juice they could out of that team with Kyler Murray. I don't believe in Kyler Murray one bit. I think Cliff Kingsbury is better than his counterpart would be in Kyler Murray. That could be interesting. There's rumors that you can trade for a Mike Tomlin. I don't see that happening, but that would be interesting as well. A lot to discuss here. I just need you guys to do a couple things for me. Subscribe to the channel if you're new. Hit that like button. In the description below are links to the Discord and the Patreon. Patreon.com slash All Aboard Raiders. You get videos like this if you sign up on that website days in advance. You get your name at the end of the credit. You get exclusive content, ad-free content. I think that's all I have to say about that. Antonio Pierce is gone. Again, I didn't want this to happen this way, but it is what it is. We'll see if he gets a defensive coordinator job. I think he probably should get some job because our defense was pretty good under him. Just didn't get the quarterback right and made a lot of weird decisions that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and he didn't conduct himself like I thought he would. I was wrong about McDaniels, and I was wrong about Pierce, so I reserve the right to be a little less excited about maybe a Ben Johnson or Liam Cohen, although Rabel has proven to be a very good head coach. Let's see if Tom Brady can work his magic. Comment away. Hit that like button. Be sure to subscribe. It's free. I have no charge to you. I love you guys, and I'll see you next time.