The Las Vegas Raiders fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler just hours after the NFL trade deadline. While the timing of the move surprised many around the league, there were reportedly signs of it days before McDaniels last took the field.
In the days leading up to McDaniels’ firing, there were already indications in Las Vegas of the head coach starting to lose the support of the locker room. Months after the first-ever NFL Players Association report card revealed how many in the locker room felt about McDaniels, things worsened.
- Josh McDaniels coaching record: 20-33 career (11-17 with Denver Broncos, 9-17 with Raiders)
Josh Jacobs and Davante Adams, two of the Raiders’ best players and team leaders, both expressed frustration with the offense. While complaints are normal, the All-Pro offensive weapons didn’t hide where they believed the issues with the offense originated. It was reportedly made even clearer behind the scenes in Las Vegas.
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According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, everything changed for the Raiders’ franchise during a Thursday practice in preparation for their Monday Night Football game against the Detroit Lions.
In a team meeting hours prior, players begged McDaniels to change his way. He was still having the same issues as he did in 2022 with Las Vegas and in his prior stint with the Denver Broncos. McDaniels ran abnormally long practices, acted overconfident regarding his system and rarely listened to his players’ input on the offense or how he could be a better coach. After more than a year of it, players pushed back during that Thursday practice.
The downfall of Josh McDaniels
McDaniels was described by Raiders’ officials at the practice as being far less involved than usual, akin to a ‘bystander’ just taking it in, per NFL Network. He let all the plays happen without making any corrections, put everything on the players to self-correct themselves and stayed away from stepping in following each mistake. As those around the team described it, McDaniels completely changed.
It came after the closed-door meeting where players and some assistant coaches ripped into McDaniels. Everyone in the locker room wanted to fix what led to the team falling to a 3-4 record. So, players encouraged McDaniels to change the way he ran his meetings, reduce how often he overcorrected every minor mistake and stop blaming players for issues with play-calling.
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What the players hoped would be a productive meeting that led to McDaniels changing his ways instead had a negative impact. As one source described it to Rapoport, the Raiders head coach became a shell of himself. Las Vegas had music playing during that practice and players were allowed to be a bit more relaxed while preparing for Detroit, but it was a jarring change from everything McDaniels had done before that point.
Against Detroit, McDaniels’ offense averaged just 3.5 yards per play and went 1-for-9 on third-down attempts. In addition, the quarterback McDaniels hand-picked to lead this offense (Jimmy Garoppolo) missed numerous throws to a wide-open Davante Adams, proving costly in a 26-14 loss.
After the game, Raiders’ owner Mark Davis spoke to Jacobs, Adams and other influential voices in the locker room. When it became clear that McDaniels wasn’t trusted to turn things around and didn’t have the support of his players, Davis decided to fire McDaniels and Ziegler.
McDaniels likely won’t receive a third shot at running a team after becoming the first NFL head coach to be fired twice before even finishing his second season. As for Ziegler, the former Raiders’ general manager reportedly served more as an assistant to McDaniels. Both could return to the New England Patriots in 2024.
