The Las Vegas Raiders have been linked to Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, here are 3 reasons why it makes sense for the silver and black
University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is reportedly interested in making a return to the NFL, and the two teams he has been linked with most often are the Chicago Bears and the Las Vegas Raiders. A recent report from The Athletic suggests that Harbaugh is most intrigued by a return to the NFL with the Raiders.
The Las Vegas Raiders head coach opening is still technically available despite the recent success of interim head coach Rich Bisaccia who has led the team to the brink of a playoff appearance. The team has not converted Bisaccia to the full-time position and it’s reasonable to believe that no matter what happens in Week 18, the Raiders will be looking elsewhere for a head coach.
Harbaugh has been at Michigan since his acrimonious departure from the San Francisco 49ers after the 2014-15 season. He has long been rumored to be making his way back to the pro ranks especially after some of his less successful seasons at the college level. This year he took the Wolverines to their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance and may be looking for a new challenge at this point.
Here are 3 reasons why the Raiders should pursue Jim Harbaugh as their next head coach.
3 reasons why the Las Vegas Raiders should hire Jim Harbaugh
Jim Harbaugh is a proven winner at every level, including the NFL
Jim Harbaugh has been a head coach at the college and NFL level For 15 years and everywhere he is gone success has followed. He took over a struggling Stanford program in 2007 and after 2 Bad seasons, he turned them into a contender for the Pac-12 title, and his tenure culminated with a 12-1 season and an Orange Bowl victory in 2010.
After that, he made the short trip north from Palo Alto to take over the San Francisco 49ers and he once again took over a struggling team and turned them into a contender. 49ers went 5-10 before he arrived and he implemented one of the biggest turnarounds in NFL history as they went 13-3 in 2011 and made it to the NFC championship game.
They lost that game in dramatic fashion thanks to two key fumbles from their punt return man, but they had all the makings of a Super Bowl team.
The next season the 49ers continued their dominant run as they went 11-4-1 and made it all the way to the Super Bowl. They lost the Super Bowl in dramatic fashion as well to the Baltimore Ravens but rather than crumbling the following season as many Super Bowl losers have done, they made it all the way back to the NFC championship and fell just short against the Seattle Seahawks.
In 2014, Harbaugh went 8-8 and had some clashes with ownership, and his 49ers tenure ended with both parties “mutually parting ways”. He ended his 49ers career with a 44-19-1 record and is the only coach in NFL history to make a conference title game in his first 3 seasons.
Harbaugh then takes over the Michigan Wolverines and turns a struggling program into a consistent contender for the Big Ten title and leads them to the College Football Playoff in 2021. There is a consistent theme of Harbaugh taking over struggling or mediocre teams and turning them into contenders and as stated earlier, he has done this at both the pro and college ranks.
He has the skills and experience necessary to take the Raiders from an average team to one of the best in the NFL.
3 reasons why the Las Vegas Raiders should hire Jim Harbaugh
Jim Harbaugh is not afraid to make tough personnel decisions for the benefit of the team
Following a difficult 2010 season under Mike Singletary and Alex Smith struggling at quarterback, the 49ers selected University of Nevada-Reno quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft. Jim Harbaugh took over as head coach that same offseason and helped revitalize Alex Smith’s career and turned him into a winning quarterback.
After falling short against the New York Giants in 2011, the 49ers went into the 2012 season as one of the favorites in the NFC. They started the season 6-2 with Smith as the quarterback but when he suffered a concussion against the Rams in week 10, the Colin Kaepernick era began.
Kapernick came on in relief of Smith and the game against St Louis ended in a tie but it was the last time Smith would start that season.
Kaepernick started the following week against the Chicago Bears on Monday night and had a fantastic performance against a very good Bears defense. Harbaugh chose to go with the “ hot hand” at quarterback and his faith was rewarded with a 5-2 record with Kaepernick as the starter in the regular season. The success would continue in the playoffs as the 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons on their way to a Super Bowl matchup with the Ravens.
It would have been very easy for Harbaugh to go back to Smith after he was cleared from his injury in week 10 but he saw that the team performed better under Kaepernick and he made what was then a risky choice. You would continue to have great success with Kaepernick as his QB and we could expect the same level of confident decision-making in Las Vegas.
The Raiders don’t have a young quarterback waiting in the wings to take over for Derek Carr, but if Harbaugh believes there is a better option then he will not be afraid to take it.
3 reasons why the Las Vegas Raiders should hire Jim Harbaugh
Jim Harbaugh is older and wiser and can navigate the politics of an NFL organization
If you’re reading through this and seeing all of the incredible things that Jim Harbaugh accomplished at the NFL and college level, you may be wondering why he left the 49ers despite his success and an incredible record. The reason they “mutually agreed to part ways” is that Harbaugh and 49ers brass repeatedly clashed over personnel decisions and they simply could not get along.
Harbaugh was known for being somewhat abrasive and we saw how intense he got on the sidelines during games so, understandably, some of that leaked into the day-to-day operations of the team. From all reports, Harbaugh was never interested in playing politics in the workplace and was just focused on the team while his rival, GM Trent Baalke, was all about politics and positioning himself as the lead voice in the room.
This relationship reportedly reached a boiling point in the 2014 season when the 49ers “struggled” and finished with an 8-8 record after 3 straight winning seasons. Harbaugh was reportedly told that no matter what happened that season he would no longer be the coach and the team even tried to trade him to the Cleveland Browns.
Instead, he took over his alma mater and has shown no interest in an NFL job for 6 years.
Now that he is older and wiser and more familiar with the inner workings of an NFL organization, we can expect a more agreeable approach from Harbaugh if he takes over as coach of the Raiders. He started his NFL coaching career there as the QB coach during the 2002 and 2003 seasons so he knows the organization and has a great relationship with owner Mark Davis.
We don’t know if Harbaugh would insist on having full control of personnel or if he would be willing to work with a GM, whether it’s Mike Mayock or his potential replacement, but he has a good track record there as well. What we do know is that Harbaugh has everything you want in a head coach: experience, the right personality to create a winning culture, the ability to navigate egos in a locker room, and most importantly a track record of success.
The decision on who the next head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders will be the most important one Mark Davis has ever had to make and there are plenty of reasons why Jim Harbaugh is the right choice.