A rumor from inside Las Vegas Raiders circles suggests that head coach Josh McDaniels was no fan of one of his top players when he took over the team in 2022.
While the Las Vegas Raiders have been a mess already to start the 2023 NFL season, this is not a sudden shift for the team. There have been developing issues in the locker room since last year as a team that reached the playoffs two years ago fell flat in Josh McDaniels’ first season as head coach, despite the organization making big moves to bolster the roster for him.
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Things really seemed to take a downturn late in the season when they were unofficially out of playoff contention and the head coach made the stunning decision to bench starting quarterback Derek Carr with two games left on the schedule. However, that unexpected move might have been a decision McDaniels had made up in his mind months before, and it could be something that again happens with a top player this season.
- Josh Jacobs stats (2022): 2,053 total yards, 53 catches, 12 touchdowns, 4.9 YPC
Las Vegas Raiders head coach was no fan of Derek Carr and Josh Jacobs when he took the job in 2022
During a recent edition of “The Rich Eisen Show,” the sports talk show host claimed that there were rumblings last year that the current Las Vegas Raiders head coach took the job despite not being a believer in two of the team’s top talents on offense.
“All I heard from the chatterbox that is known as the National Football League when nobodies got a microphone on is that McDaniels was not a Carr fan, and also not a Josh Jacobs fan,” Eisen said. “You heard those rumors, whether they’re true or not.”
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The revelation does make some sense considering how the coach handled the Carr situation after a nine-year career with the franchise. When it comes to Jacobs, he did get limited touches in the 2022 preseason and the organization passed on picking up his fifth-year option. This ended up being a disastrous decision as he had a breakout year in 2022 and had a contract dispute with the team this summer.
It will be interesting to see if McDaniels looks to move the player he wasn’t originally a big fan of at this year’s trade deadline if their season seems lost before Oct. 31.