Sometimes all it takes is the smallest spark to light a fire. For besieged Las Vegas Raiders‘ head coach Antonio Pierce, Week 16 might’ve provided that–with a win over the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars, we might’ve seen a culture shift. This team isn’t tanking, so deal with it.
Let’s be honest, 2024 has been a trainwreck for the Silver and Black. It all started with the fiasco involving the hiring of then-offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and who they “didn’t” get. From the outset, Pierce would face an uphill battle. Despite pleading for a franchise quarterback, “AP” walked into this season with Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell; neither of whom really screamed “elite.”
Still, this season was going to be predicated by how the defense performed. Well, that too fell apart early. Losing up-and-coming star pass rusher Malcolm Koonce proved to be meaningful. On top of that, losing prized free agent acquisition Christian Wilkins only helped to compound the situation. You could argue that most of the original starting defense didn’t see the field together all that much.
Already, these sound like excuses, but are they not legitimately palatable?
Perhaps the Las Vegas Raiders aren’t helpless under Antonio Pierce after all
Now, in hindsight, it’s clear that Pierce doomed himself when he chose Minshew over O’Connell as the team’s starting quarterback. If you have a healthy AOC under center, there’s no way that the Raiders go on a ten-game losing streak. If you remove emotion out of your judgement, it’s easy to see that Las Vegas was competitive in most of their games and weren’t getting blown out–aside from the beatdown at the hands of the Carolina Panthers.
The thing is, Pierce is a rookie head coach; he’s allowed to make mistakes. Surely AP would run it back with a different starting quarterback if he could, but what’s done is done. What’s obvious is that these players are playing hard for Pierce in spite of the losing. They’re not trying to hear anything about losing on purpose, certainly not leaders such as Brock Bowers and Maxx Crosby.
Of course, Raiders fans don’t care about any of that.
To many folks within content creator, media, and fan circles, you “tank” in order to secure a top draft-pick which in-turn can lead to a franchise-altering quarterback. Truthfully, that logic is greatly flawed. Look at their opponent on Sunday; they were in a similar situation not long ago, and then secured Trevor Lawrence. Thus far, the Jaguars have been unable to surround him with the appropriate team. Now, some are wondering whether he’s a bust altogether with his 22-38 record in the meantime.
The realities of “tanking”
The list of teams that have latched onto the notion of picking quarterbacks with their top pick only to see them flounder within three to four years is endless. This isn’t to say that the answer for the Raiders is currently on the team–it just means trying to lose on purpose with the expectation that a rookie quarterback will turn things around is unsound.
You have to build a competent roster first. One with depth, and more importantly, one with continuity leading it: i.e., the coaching staff.
If you’re the Raiders, you can’t lose on purpose. Continuous losing infects your team’s mentality. Whether you believe it or not, the players in the locker room don’t want to lose–just because things haven’t gone their way does not make them “losers.” “Tanking” or anything close to that can have disastrous effects; losing will spread like a cancer. Once that happens, you end up like organizations such as the Cleveland Browns. At that point, you have to scrap the entire roster, including stars such as Crosby.
Like anything in life, you have to build one day at a time. The NFL is no different; it’s one game at a time. Just because you have buyer’s remorse doesn’t mean you have to turn on Pierce. Many fans were screaming “RAIDERS” just as loudly as him last season. Everything’s a process, and building the Raiders back up is exactly that. As Pierce himself alluded to, we should be talking about winning, not losing.
*Top Photo: Getty Images
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