The Athletic shares concerning speculation about Raiders' Antonio Pierce

There was real excitement surrounding Antonio Pierce's potential as a head coach after he impressed in the interim role last year for the Las Vegas Raiders. Despite the team looking listless, he was able to turn the season around and finished with a 5-4 record.

That made Mark Davis hiring him for the full-time job a no-brainer in the offseason. However, hindsight is 20-20 and it's clear the Raiders made a mistake. Pierce is not ready to be a head coach. The team is 2-8 and has the fourth-worst point differential in the NFL.

Many thought that Pierce was going to get a second season regardless of how this year went just so the Raiders could have some stability. He's been so bad that people are starting to think that him getting fired could be a real possibility.

Josh Kendall of The Athletic went so far as to suggest it's more likely than not that Pierce gets the ax.

"Antonio Pierce is 7-12 in two seasons after the Raiders got blown out by Miami on Sunday," Kendall wrote in a recent power rankings column. "They have bounced back and forth between quarterbacks all year long and never felt like a threat in the AFC West or anywhere else. Jakobi Meyers was Las Vegas’ leading rusher Sunday with one carry for 20 yards. At least there’s Brock Bowers, who had 13 catches for 126 yards against the Dolphins. With new minority owner Tom Brady in the building, it seems unlikely majority owner Mark Davis will stand pat with Pierce as head coach."

Fans were hoping that Pierce would have a similar effect to what Dan Campbell or Mike Vrabel had on their teams. Unfortunately, he's much closer to Mike Singletary. The Raiders can't afford to double-down on something that's not working.

Davis needs to give general manager Tom Telesco and new part owner Tom Brady the freedom to run the next head coach search because clearly, he doesn't know how to find the right one.