The Las Vegas Raiders' coaching staff is going to look quite different following the bye week. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, offensive line coach James Cregg and quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello were all fired following the blowout loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
While the offense has been bad, the defense hasn't been much better but as the head coach, Antonio Pierce can hold others accountable before he'll be. It's clear that the Raiders offense wasn't working and Getsy's track record isn't great so it's hard to fault Pierce for making the move.
He explained why the team decided to go in a different direction.
“Just performance, results and production,” Pierce said during his Monday press conference. “Just wasn’t heading in the direction I wanted it to go. I’ll use the next 24-to-48 hours to sit down with staff and figure out who’s gonna call the offense going forward.”
This is a pretty weak statement from Pierce. He's been a bit more careful with his words since the "business decisions" comments from Week 3 but he should give people a bit more to work with. What was Getsy doing wrong that he thinks somebody else could do better?
Pierce said the decision was his but he has to be feeling heat from owner Mark Davis. The team just brought Tom Brady on as a part owner and he could have a say in the head coaching position going forward.
The Raiders are 2-7 and Pierce is already firing coaches he just hired less than a year ago. He deserves a lot of credit for what he did last season but it's massively important for a defensive-minded head coach to be able to hire good offensive coaches.
So far, he's shown that he's not able to do that. If the Raiders continue down this path the rest of the season, Pierce could be out of the job in January.