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Raiders Fire Maligned Antonio Pierce Consultant

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Austin C. Boyd | Last updated Feb 28, 2025 12:33 PM ET

A major reason why the Las Vegas Raiders fired head coach Antonio Pierce after just one season was due to his very poor game management skills. While he made more than his fair share of poor decisions, he did have a game management consultant named Matt Sheldon who was supposed to help him work out those issues.

That never ended up being the case and now Sheldon is joining Pierce in unemployment. According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal , the Raiders have let go of Sheldon as new head coach Pete Carroll continues to put his staff together.

Fans typically don't know the name of game management consultants but Sheldon caught the ire of many Raiders fans during the 2024 season. He was a hire from the Josh McDaniels era who was brought back on Pierce's staff but perhaps the coach should've done a bigger overhaul.

Regardless, Carroll is going to go with somebody he can trust. Bonsignore noted that assistant quarterbacks coach Nate Carroll has "game management" in his title so he could help in that regard. He also brought in Mark Thewes as senior vice president of football operations and strategy who has experience with game management.

Carroll has also been a head coach for nearly three decades so he should be much better at game management than Pierce ever was.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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