Last week, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis fired general manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels following a frustrating Monday night loss to the Detroit Lions that dropped them to 4-6 on the year.
Ziegler and McDaniels, who both came over from the New England Patriots organization, didn’t even last two full years in Sin City. They inherited a 10-win team that reached the postseason in 2021 under interim HC Rich Bisaccia, but it didn’t take long for Ziegler and McDaniels to somehow make an ultra-talented team significantly worse.
Arguably the most head-scratching move of the Ziegler-McDaniels era was the organization’s decision to release Derek Carr and replace him with an oft-injured and inconsistent Jimmy Garoppolo on a three-year pact worth $72.75 million deal.
According to Raiders insider Hondo S. Carpenter from Sports Illustrated, it was McDaniels who wanted to sign Garoppolo, and they did so despite Ziegler strongly opposing the move.
“Dave and Josh disagreed on a lot. I will not get into all of it; I will after the season, but Josh was in charge. I will get into the ten biggest disagreements that they had and where both of them failed after the season. I will give you one area they disagreed vehemently, but you’ll have to wait for the others. Josh wanted Jimmy Garoppolo, and Dave thought it was a terrible decision. Plenty of more details and other examples after the year.”
Garoppolo has already missed two games due to injury, and he was benched in favor of rookie Aidan O’Connell in the club’s Week 9 home win against the New York Giants. Garoppolo has just 1,205 yards passing in six games with seven touchdowns against nine interceptions.
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Following the dismissals of Ziegler and McDaniels, Davis named Champ Kelly and Antonio Pierce as their respective replacements, respectively. The Raiders commenced the new era perfectly on Sunday, defeating the New York Giants 30-6.
