Many in the media are not high on the Las Vegas Raiders this season. While it's easy for fans to get annoyed by that, it's also easy to understand the lack of confidence. Antonio Pierce showed a lot of promise as a head coach last season but there are still a lot of unknowns with him.
Until Pierce and the Raiders can prove that they're the real deal, nobody is going to respect them, especially the folks at ESPN. In fact, Ben Solak recently went through and ranked every coaching staff in the NFL and had the Raiders all the way at the bottom.
"I want to be very clear: I like Patrick Graham," Solak wrote. "Check my Patrick Graham receipts. I'm in on Graham.
"But some team has to be 32 out of 32, even if there's reason for optimism, and that unfortunate title falls on the Raiders. I'm always suspicious of interim-to-head coach promotions. The best success story for an interim promotion in the past 20 years is former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. Do you really want to be angling for a Jason Garrett arc?"
On one hand, I get what Solak is saying but I also believe the whole idea of interim-to-head coach promotions not working is a bit misleading. We have a very small sample size to pick from so Pierce's ceiling is not Jason Garrett.
Also, I fail to understand how the New England Patriots or Carolina Panthers are ranked higher. They both have first-time head coaches and their coaching staffs aren't anything special. At least Pierce has nine games under his belt as a head coach. Plus, he has a winning 5-4 record.
This isn't even mentioning failed coaches like Dennis Allen and Dan Quinn being ranked ahead. With all that said, the Raiders are very much in an "I'll believe it when I see it" era. There's a lot of potential with Pierce and his coaching staff but there are so many unknowns.
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter where the team ranks in preseason media lists. All that matters is how the team actually plays once the regular season starts.