A lot has been made about Josh McDaniels’ performance as the Las Vegas Raiders head coach in his first season with the team.
Vegas entered Sunday’s home outing against another bad squad in that of the Indianapolis Colts having lost two consecutive games. That includes a shutout loss to the New Orleans Saints back in Week 8 and blowing a 17-0 lead to the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday.
It was also set to take on a Colts team that fired head coach Frank Reich and replaced him with an interim coach in that of Jeff Saturday who had no experience above the high school level prior to Sunday’s game.
Everything was seemingly set up well for the Raiders to break from their current funk and come away with a win in front of their home fans.
About that? Vegas fell down 10-0 early in the game with newly-inserted Colts quarterback Matt Ryan vastly outplaying Derek Carr. While the Raiders did end up taking the lead early in the fourth quarter, an 82-yard drive that culminated in a Ryan touchdown pass to Parris Campbell with 5:07 remaining put Indianapolis up for good.
The Raiders’ defense gave up 415 total yards to a Colts offense that managed three points against the New England Patriots last week. Heck, Indianapolis entered Sunday’s game ranked dead last in the NFL in scoring at 14.7 points per game. It’s unacceptable to see this unit put up 25 points and north of 400 yards on your defense.
Now at 2-7 on the season, the Raiders are going nowhere fast. Is it now time to talk about McDaniels’ job security just nine games into his first season with the Raiders? We think so. Here’s why.
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It was following last week’s loss to Jacksonville that star Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams seemingly threw McDaniels under the bus. He did not hold back in criticizing the now-embattled head coach.
“At the end of the day, I don’t care, like you can say whatever you want to say. The coaches gotta make the adjustments just like the players do. And that’s just the way that the game goes,” Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams on criticizing Josh McDaniels.
That can’t sit well with McDaniels. And in reality, Adams has publicly displayed the same frustration we know the rest of the Raiders’ roster has right now.
The backdrop here is a report from Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio early Sunday morning suggesting that the Raiders could end up firing McDaniels if they lost to the Colts. About that? They lost in ugly fashion.
One of the only things potentially keeping McDaniels’ job safe is the fact that he’s in the first season of a five-year contract. Firing McDaniels would cost Mark Davis a ton of cash. When comparing his net worth to other NFL owners, Davis doesn’t necessarily have untapped funds. That could play a role in the decision-making process. What we do know is that McDaniels has not proven himself to be a capable NFL head coach dating back to his ill-fated tenure with the Denver Broncos.
- Josh McDaniels coaching record: 13-24, .351 winning percentage
Dating back to his final season with Denver back in 2010, McDaniels-led team have lost 13 of their past 16 games. That’s obviously not going to cut it.
Right now, the Raiders are left playing out a lost season. They just placed Pro Bowlers Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow on injured reserve while releasing a recent first-round pick.
General manager Dave Ziegler knows it’s a lost cause this season. And while he’s tied to McDaniels’ hip dating back to their days together in New England, it would not be a surprise if the front office head comes to the realization that McDaniels just isn’t it.
We will hear a lot more about McDaniels’ job security over the next few days. One now has to wonder if Davis will change course and come to the same realization that most outside of the Raiders organization have.