new heartbreak,Head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Antonio Pierce, announced his resignation due to coming back of…
This time, the Las Vegas Raiders will continue to use their interim head coach. The Raiders are getting close to making Antonio Pierce’s full-time head coach announcement official, according to a report from CBS Sports NFL Lead Insider Jonathan Jones on Friday.
Raising his childhood in Compton, Pierce was a Raiders fan. He is currently guiding the franchise’s future. In the end, Pierce will remain in Vegas despite having interviews with several organizations, including the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons, for head coaching positions.
After Josh McDaniels was fired in Week 9, the former linebackers coach for the Raiders took over as Vegas’ head coach and went 5-4. In his brief tenure as interim head coach, Pierce won his first two games, led the team to a historic 63-21 victory against the rival Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15, and stunned the Chiefs 20-14 on Christmas Day in Kansas City.
In 2023, the Raiders had no double-digit wins under McDaniels’ leadership. Vegas won three games by double digits while Pierce was in charge. Pierce ignited the Raiders defense, which went on to record several defensive touchdowns in back-to-back victories against the Chargers and Chiefs while keeping the Miami Dolphins’ highly-regarded offense out of the end zone entirely in the second half of a seven-point loss. They were the first team since the 2012 New England Patriots to do this. Under Pierce, the Raiders allowed the highest average of 16 points per game in the league from Weeks 9–18.
All-Pro pass rusher Maxx Crosby even reportedly threatened to ask for a trade if Pierce wasn’t promoted as the full-time head coach because of how much of an impact Pierce had in the Raiders locker room.
According to The Athletic, Crosby recently stated on his podcast, “I want to be a Raider… but if we go in a different direction, there is nothing that is off the table.”
Pierce played linebacker for the New York Giants and Washington in 2001 after going undrafted out of Arizona. In addition to winning the Pro Bowl in 2006, he led a defense that won the Super Bowl. Pierce started his coaching career in 2014 at Long Beach Poly High School, having retired in 2010. Before being hired by the Raiders to become their linebackers coach before the 2022 season, he previously spent four seasons at Arizona State as the team’s defensive coordinator, assistant head coach, and linebackers coach.
