The Las Vegas Raiders became the sixth team in the NFL to fire their head coach after the 2024 season. Antonio Pierce only won four games after getting the interim coach tag removed, which prompted Mark Davis to make another coaching change.
The Pierce decision was met with a bit of surprise, especially after his players were so adamant about making him the permanent head coach after the 2023 season. Pierce has at least one vocal defender in the media, as Colin Cowherd took a blowtorch to what he thinks is an impatient ownership group.
In a segment on his titular show, Cowherd stood up for Antonio Pierce, saying he was constantly in close games against superior opponents despite Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew as his quarterbacks. Cowherd notes his wins against the Ravens and stronger divisional opponents.
Cowherd also took aim at Davis, calling the Raiders a Vegas "residency" where coaches perform for 12-15 months and get out of town after cashing a check. Cowherd also noted that Davis' willingness to fire coaches will lead to him paying the salaries of four different coaches over the last half-decade.
Colin Cowherd defends Antonio Pierce, rips Raiders' Mark Davis for firing him
Pierce went 9-17 as Raiders head coach, though the best quarterback who started a game for him may have been O'Connell, in a division where one-third of your schedule comes against Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Bo Nix, that's not going to cut it for even the greatest offensive mind out there.
Davis fans will say is willing to see when something isn't working and make a change, those against Davis will call him impatient and unwilling to see things through to completion. Imagine if the Lions or 49ers had fired Dan Campbell or Kyle Shanahan after they had tough starts to their coaching careers?
Pierce will likely earn an assistant coaching job if he wants it, be it as assistant head coach or defensive coordinator. His energy is infectious, and Raiders players were always playing hard for him, even as the prospect of a successful season started to gradually slip away.
Even Pierce supporters may admit, however, that becoming a full-time head coach may have been too much, too fast for him. Pierce was thrown into a difficult situation with little to defend himself, and Cowherd seems to believe he did better than what many others would have done in that situation.