The Las Vegas Raiders have played much better ball since Antonio Pierce took over as interim head coach. That point isn’t even debated at this stage.
The Raiders destroyed the Chargers two weeks ago and upset the Chiefs on Christmas Day. Even in its losses, Las Vegas has been more competitive and played with more fire than under Josh McDaniels, who was fired after a 3-5 start to the season along with general manager David Ziegler.
The question is whether owner Mark Davis will see enough to make Pierce the full-time coach at the season’s close.
For his part, Pierce said job application is on the field.
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“My resume is on the grass. What do you want? I can put up a fancy presentation, I’ve seen that before. I can put up stats, I can put up my resume, but the best thing that happened for me was an opportunity,” Pierce told reporters Tuesday, via Tyler Dragon of USA Today. “I said this maybe last week, the worst day I was going to be as a head coach was my first day. And each day is my job and I really take pride in growing each and every day to get better. No different than when I was a player to get better. And by the end, you look at it, whatever your career was and whatever my coaching careers is, and you sit there and say, ‘Look, this is what he was.’ And hopefully (Raiders owner) Mark Davis sees improvement and growth within our team. He sees the style and play that he wants from the Raiders. He sees a fan base that’s behind us. He sees a building that loves coming to work and loves being here. And people that’s covering the team, enjoying covering the team. And at the end of the day, we got to win. And right now, my record, our record is 4-3.”
Two years ago, after then-interim coach Rich Bisaccia led the Raiders to the postseason in the wake of the Jon Gruden scandal, there were calls for Davis to hire him full-time. Vegas opted for McDaniels, who lasted just 25 games.
This time around, the calls to keep Pierce are growing as loud. With two games left against Indianapolis and Denver, Pierce has a chance to grow that resume and convince Davis he’s the man to keep into 2024.
