Was the new Raiders regime OK with losing in 2022 all along?
By Keith Ricci
Though the talk at the time was winning right away, maybe the 2022 Las Vegas Raiders season was always going to be about transitioning.
Minutes after introducing Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler as the new Raiders administration, owner Mark Davis proclaimed, “it’s not a rebuild…it’s just taking this to the next level, getting to that Super Bowl”.
Now just over nine months later, the Raiders are the second-worst team in the NFL with an embarrassing 2-7 record. Despite that, Davis said this week that McDaniels is doing a “fantastic job”. A head-scratching evaluation from the boss.
Clearly (hopefully) this remark is regarding whatever internal long-term plan they have, rather than their pathetic performance on the field.
The new regime has completely different personalities, football philosophies, and work styles than the old regime of Jon Gruden, Rich Bisaccia, and Mike Mayock. Davis knew from the beginning that this leadership overhaul meant the Raiders would be starting from scratch, for better or worse.
That’s not necessarily rebuilding, but it is a significant transition.
Fans should’ve realized this too, but we didn’t want to. We focused on the strong finish to last season followed by the addition of the best wide receiver in the NFL. Expectations were higher than ever entering this season. But Davis, McDaniels, and Ziegler knew this turbulence could happen and therefore they were ok with losing in 2022 all along.
This is not a piece on whether it’s right or wrong, I’m just trying to make sense of this mess and give my opinion of what’s happening. I’m also not trying to justify their failures, but rather explain why they always knew failing was a realistic outcome this season.