Firing Josh McDaniels will cost Mark Davis millions but he can certainly afford it.
The Las Vegas Raiders fired coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, the team announced Tuesday night. It was shocking and yet not shocking since his tenure has been filled with nothing but losing and no signs of improvement.
According to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, Davis had to pay the remainder of McDaniels’ contract to the tune of around $45 million after the firing.
“With four and a half years on Josh [McDaniels] contract, and roughly $45 million [left on the deal], Mark Davis wanted stability within the organization and he was trying desperately to believe in the direction it was going,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on Wednesday.
The Raiders named linebackers coach Antonio Pierce as their interim head coach. The team also said that current assistant general manager Champ Kelly will serve as interim GM.
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The team would then go on to bench quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and start rookie QB Aidan O’Connell for the foreseeable future.
The moves came one day after the Raiders lost 26-14 at Detroit on “Monday Night Football,” which was the second consecutive defeat in which the team’s offense could get no traction. With the defeat, the Raiders dropped to 3-5.
Pierce will make his NFL head-coaching debut Sunday against the 2-6 New York Giants, with whom he won a Super Bowl as a player in 2007.
