Antonio Pierce sent the Las Vegas Raiders a strong message following the embarrassing Week 3 loss to the Carolina Panthers. His comments about players making business decisions echoed throughout the whole NFL world.
Davante Adams is the Raiders' most expensive player and a team captain. He's also one of the oldest players on the team and might need a new contract next year so if anybody could make a business decision, it was him. However, he's in total support of Pierce's comments.
“I agree,” Adams said on Up & Adams. “I think at the end of the day, you look at the drives that we had at the end of that game, and we didn’t really have much to play for other than pride. Really just pride and doing it for the Raiders logo, and then the name on the back as well, putting something good on tape just so we didn’t look like complete trash out there. Obviously, we got beat by a team that we feel like we shouldn’t have gotten beat by, but that was the case, and we can’t change the score late in the fourth. So, we just have to put the best stuff we can on tape.”
#Raiders WR Davante Adams on HC Antonio Pierce saying some players made "business decision" vs. Carolina 😬
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) September 24, 2024
"I agree... There was some guys out there that were just trying to see another day and that's really not what the game is about."@tae15adams @heykayadams @Raiders pic.twitter.com/fFI6F0dFzi
Adams even took Pierce's comments a step further and suggested he wasn't seeing maximum effort from the early stages of the game.
“I think a lot of people were doing that, and then there were some guys out there that -- they were kind of trying to see another day," Adams said. "That's really not what the game is about. If you look at the tape across the whole game, it wasn’t really just late in the game. It was multiple times throughout the three hours we were out there where people were maybe not putting that extra hit on somebody, not putting that extra block, or straining a little bit more, just so we can have it look the way we want it to on tape. That’s something we talk about the entire year. Regardless, just making it look a certain way, regardless of the scoreboard or anything. Just going out there and having enough pride to put something good on tape. So, we need everybody with the right mindset and devoted to doing that.”
Why players aren't playing hard in Week 3 during the home opener is completely baffling. The thing Pierce is supposed to hang his hat on is being able to get the players to buy in. If he can't even do that, he has no business being a head coach for an NFL team.
This is a situation to watch because Mark Davis may not have a problem with firing Pierce after the season if this is who the players are going to play under the coach.