The Las Vegas Raiders took a gamble this offseason, naming Antonio Pierce their full-time coach despite his limited coaching experience. As a result, Raiders owner Mark Davis hired Tom Telesco to take over as general manager to help bring more experience into the organization.
Telesco, age 51, had just been fired as general manager by the Los Angeles Chargers. The long-time NFL executive served as the Chargers general manager for a decade. However, with just three playoff appearances during his tenure, a change was made.
Related: Why Antonio Pierce was the wrong choice for the Las Vegas Raiders
Las Vegas faced plenty of skepticism over its decision to hire Telesco. While the Raiders locker room and fan base wrestled adamant about Pierce remaining the head coach, the move to hire Telesco raised eyebrows. He had a spotty track record of talent evaluation and decision-making with the Chargers, especially outside of the first round.
The results in Telesco’s first season have been mixed. Las Vegas struck gold with first-round pick Brock Bowers, who already looks like an All-Pro talent as a rookie. Second-round pick Jackson powers-Johnson has also played fairly well in his first NFL season, but the rest of the Raiders draft class and their free-agent signings have failed to meet expectations.
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On the latest Scoop City podcast, The Athletic‘s senior NFL reporter Dianna Russini shared that the Raiders organization “really like” Telesco still and many inside the building are fans of the work he’s done this year.
“Everything I’m hearing, they really like what Telesco is doing in that building.”
Dianna Russini on Las Vegas Raiders general manager Tom Telesco
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The information comes amid NFL rumors that Pierce is very much on the hot seat. Las Vegas gave him the full-time job in part because All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby threatened to demand a trade if Pierce wasn’t named the Raiders head coach. However, after a 5-4 stint as the interim coach replacing Josh McDaniels, Pierce is 2-9 this season and the Raiders are one of the worst-coached teams in the NFL.
For now, the likely scenario appears to be the Raiders firing Pierce after Week 18 with co-owner Tom Brady helping select the next Raiders head coach. However, that does put Las Vegas in the position of possibly hiring a head coach in 2025 and then potentially firing Telesco in a year or two if the team still fails to meet expectations.
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