It seems fairly safe to say that Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Maxx Crosby is not the biggest fan of Josh McDaniels.
During an episode of his podcast “The Rush” this past weekend, Crosby bemoaned the Raiders’ decision to hire McDaniels over Rich Bisaccia in 2022, saying the team “(expletive) it all up.”
Bisaccia took over for Jon Gruden in an interim role early on in the 2021 campaign and went 7-5, leading Las Vegas to just its second playoff berth since 2003.
However, instead of sticking with Bisaccia, owner Mark Davis opted to go with McDaniels. Needless to say, it didn’t go too well, and the Raiders ultimately fired McDaniels this past October. Antonio Pierce was then named interim head coach and went 5-4.
Now, Las Vegas is faced with a very similar scenario, and Crosby hopes the franchise doesn’t mess up again.
“I mean, it’s pretty simple,” Crosby said. ” … I’ve made it very public, I made it pretty honest and clear. And for me, it’s Antonio Pierce, without a doubt. I mean, we already had this opportunity a couple years ago with Rich. We had things going in the right direction, we went to the playoffs, almost won a playoff game. But we ended up deciding to go in a different direction and start from ground zero, and that didn’t work.”
The general consensus is that the Raiders will end up retaining Pierce, but they still have to go through the interview process so as not to violate any NFL rules.
You would also think that Davis will highly value the opinions of Crosby and Las Vegas’ other key players, who have all thrown their staunch support behind Pierce.
Crosby racked up 90 tackles, 14.5 sacks, a couple of forced fumbles and a fumble recovery this season en route to this third straight Pro Bowl selection.
If the Raiders don’t bring back Pierce, Maxx Crosby may end up exploring a trade.
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