Antonio Pierce was a dead man walking two weeks ago. The Las Vegas Raiders were in the middle of a 10-game losing streak and nothing was going right.
However, Pierce and the Raiders have found some life. The team has now won back-to-back games and has a chance to end the season on a high note at home against the Los Angeles Chargers. Now it seems there's a possibility that Pierce could have a chance to come back.
The players clearly haven't given up on Pierce. Even in some ugly losses, they have played consistently hard since the Week 3 loss to the Carolina Panthers. He knows how to push the right buttons for the players. He also could point to any number of excuses for why he shouldn't be fired.
Offensive struggles? Well, he wanted Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordiantor but the team wouldn't give him more than a two-year contract. He's now leading a top-five offense for the Washington Commanders.
Quarterbacks issues? Pierce was pretty clear that he didn't want a stopgap quarterback this year. What did the Raiders do? They gave him a stopgap quarterback in Gardner Minshew who was terrible before getting hurt.
Defensive regression? The Raiders have several key starters on Injured Reserve, including Malcolm Koone, Maxx Crosby, Christian Wilkins, Marcus Epps and Jakorian Bennett. If all of those guys played a majority of games this season, perhaps the defensive numbers would be much better. Even with all of those injuries, the Raiders are 10th in the NFL in yards allowed.
It's easy to see how Mark Davis can look at all of that coupled with the late-season wins and decide to give Pierce one more year. That said, he can't ignore some of the glaring mistakes Pierce has made. Staring Minshew over Aidan O'Connell in Week 1 was clearly the wrong move. His game management has been the worst in the NFL and pivoting to Luke Getsy after Kingsbury dropped out was a bad move.
Also, the Raiders' last two wins came over terrible Jaguars and Saints teams that were starting backup quarterbacks. It still feels like Pierce might need a big win over the Chargers to secure the head coaching job going forward. If the Raiders get embarrassed at home to end the season, that could be it for Pierce.