With news that the Pittsburgh Steelers are hiring Mike McCarthy, the Las Vegas Raiders have one of the four remaining head coaching vacancies. They are undertaking a thorough search, with some tilt toward offensive-minded candidates as they eye Fernando Mendoza as their future quarterback.
San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, who had an initial interview with Las Vegas, took himself out of the running on Saturday. Quickly after that, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the Raiders interviewed Brian Daboll for their head coaching job.
Daboll is coming off three-plus seasons as the New York Giants' head coach. He was fired after Week 10 of the 2025 NFL season, with a 20-40-1 overall record and an 11-33 record after making the playoffs in his inaugural campaign.
Raiders' interview of Brian Daboll likely means either of two things
Daboll had been somewhat tied to the Raiders as an offensive coordinator candidate, and he has interviewed for multiple coordinator posts around the league. With the Buffalo Bills firing Sean McDermott this past week, he has quickly surfaced as a head coach candidate there, too.
Before the Giants hired him, Daboll had a successful run as the offensive coordinator in Buffalo, where he helped develop superstar quarterback Josh Allen. He also had a brief blip in New York with Daniel Jones, and then again with Jaxson Dart, but it wasn't enough to save his job.
Buzz has also mounted around Denver Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb as a top candidate for the Raiders' job. But because his team is still in the playoffs, his availability for interviews is limited and dependent on how Denver does.
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Webb spent three seasons of his playing career (2019-2021) with the Bills when Daboll was the offensive coordinator. Then, he spent the final season of his playing career with the Giants, which was Daboll's first season as the head coach there. He was reportedly a player-coach there.
With all of that in mind, it's plausible the Raiders wanted to gauge Daboll's interest in being Webb's offensive coordinator. Or, the reverse arrangement could be in play, with Daboll as the head coach and Webb getting his first opportunity to be an offensive coordinator.
A third possibility is Raiders' brass simply wanted to get some extra intel on Webb, and Daboll is as good a source as anyone for that. It's late in the process to add another head coach candidate. But the first two feel more likely, as there could be two different coaching options for him in Las Vegas.
The worst-case scenario is that the Raiders are panicking and pivoting at this point in the process because they aren't confident they'll land one of the big fish that they want. Hopefully, that's not the case.
In any case, the Raiders' head coaching search seems to be narrowing to a few candidates. It's just a matter of time, or timing, before a hire is made.