The Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler experiment in Las Vegas is over.
Raiders owner Mark Davis has fired head coach McDaniels and general manager Ziegler. The team announced the news late on Tuesday.
McDaniels and Ziegler were hired by the Raiders in January 2022 as a tandem from New England. McDaniels had been in his second stint with the Patriots and had served as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2012-21 before accepting the Raiders job. Ziegler had worked in the scouting and personnel departments for New England from 2013-21 before being hired to serve as Raiders GM.
The firings come a day after the Raiders lost 26-14 on “Monday Night Football” to drop to 3-5 on the season. The Raiders went 9-16 in two seasons under the leadership of McDaniels and Ziegler.
Whoever takes over the team (it’s expected to be Antonio Pierce) will be the Raiders’ fourth head coach (including interim head coaches) since 2021. Jon Gruden had been their head coach since 2018 until being fired in 2021 over a leaked email scandal. Rich Bisaccia took over as the interim head coach that year. Bisaccia was let go after the season, and the Raiders moved forward with the New England regime. Now they are expected to have Pierce take over the team.
No Raiders head coach has lasted four seasons since Gruden’s run from 1998-2001. Their last coach who stuck around for five seasons was Art Shell from 1990-94.
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