A number of players with the Las Vegas Raiders have shared their emotions and annoyances with former head coach Josh McDaniels.
Owner Mark Davis dismissed McDaniels and General Manager Dave Ziegler after the team lost on the road against the Detroit Lions in Week 8. After spending a brief time in Sin City, the McDaniels-Ziegler combination had a dismal 9-16-0 record.
Sports Illustrated’s FanNation writer Hondo S. Carpenter met with a number of Raiders players who shared their dissatisfaction with the now-former head coach. It seems that things came to the point that players stopped “having fun” and refused to go out and try to have fun in public. Carpenter was told by a player
“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.”
Inside scoopage of what went on behind the scenes that led the @raiders to fire head coach John McDaniels then.move onto Antonio Pierce as their new coach. #raiders @nflonfox pic.twitter.com/aLcymL3Gcy
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) November 5, 2023
Another player told Carpenter ,
“It wasn’t a we hate Josh meeting at all. I don’t think anyone hated him,” another player told Carpenter. “But he got his a** 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.”
Although McDaniels “was not a bad dude,” according to a another player, he didn’t seem to know “how to operate outside his system.”
Antonio Pierce, the linebackers coach, was named the Patriots’ acting head coach, and Champ Kelly was named interim general manager. In their first game following the coach and general manager changes, the Raiders defeated the New York Giants 30–6 to improve to 4-5 on the season.
