Raiders case study: The 2007 New York Giants

In the early 2000s, Tom Brady and the Patriots were the league’s Superman. They won three Super Bowls in 2002, 2004, and 2005 before taking a two-year hiatus. In 2007, however, they found themselves back in the NFL’s biggest game. On the opposite side of the bracket, the New York Giants snuck into the playoffs that year as a wildcard and their journey began on the road against the Buccaneers. A 24-14 win in Tampa Bay commenced the team’s historic postseason run, where they pulled off four straight upsets en route to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. 

What made this Giants team so fun to watch was that not only did they take down the top dogs of the league, but they played with such unmatchable energy and toughness. Their offense was solid enough but their defense defined the attitude of the team. They played with such violence and brought pain to every team they faced, especially when it mattered most.

If this rhetoric sounds familiar to you, then let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: Antonio Pierce was the starting middle linebacker on this Super Bowl-winning team. He helped pull off what many consider to be the greatest upset in the history of the NFL postseason. 

This was obviously the pinnacle of Pierce’s playing career. He won his lone Super Bowl and was the team’s leading tackler, anchoring a defense that kept some of the game’s best-ever quarterbacks in check. Flash forward nearly twenty years, and Pierce is the interim head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. As he attempted to navigate the coaching world, Pierce bounced ideas off of the greatest minds he encountered during his playing and coaching career to that point.

To no surprise, he consulted with his old Giants head coach Tom Coughlin; the man who led he and his team to that Super Bowl victory over the Patriots. Nobody can know for sure what has been said between these two men, but based on my research, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pierce is trying to model the 2024 Raiders in the image of the 2007 Giants.