IRVING, Texas. — The Las Vegas Raiders have four games remaining this season. With their playoff chances looking dismal, the most important thing that lies ahead for the franchise in the coming weeks and months is how owner Mark Davis will move forward after firing Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler earlier this season.
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It’ll be Davis’ fifth time hiring a head coach and fourth time hiring a general manager since succeeding his late father, Al Davis, in 2012, and he knows it’s long past time for him to stop making mistakes.
“I’m getting good at it,” Davis said with a wink and a smile. “You got to get it right. You got to get the whole structure right so that everybody’s working together. The left hand has to know what the right hand is doing. That’s the goal: to start with getting people with passion for football and people who are unafraid to work. It’s not a 9-to-5 job; it’s an eight-days-a-week job.
“We’re trying to build something. I want to have patience, but I understand that when I make a mistake, I’d rather fix it. I can’t sit on it. I’ve got to fix it right away. That’s something that’s tough to do because you’ve got people with families and lives involved. That’s the hardest part of making the change, but there’s so many other people involved that rely on you to make the right decision.”
Before the Raiders host the Los Angeles Chargers for “Thursday Night Football” this week, Davis flew to Dallas for an NFL special league meeting Tuesday. During a lunch break in between finishing the last few meetings Wednesday, Davis sat down with The Athletic at Outlaw Taproom at The Las Colinas Resort for an interview.
Davis discussed his impressions of interim head coach Antonio Pierce and interim GM Champ Kelly, how he’s learned from past missteps, what his approach to the hiring process will look like, whether he’ll hire the next head coach or GM first and more. The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Champ Kelly took over with the roster already pretty much in place. How do you go about evaluating him?
I think the easiest way to put it is it’s an extended interview process that we’re going through right now. He’s got a jump on everybody else because he’s actually able to do the job and interact with me on a day-to-day basis. I waited until the trade deadline was over, so when Champ came in, it was more about the ability to work week to week and evaluate players and trying to make the 53rd man better than he was the week before, whether that’s finding a player on another team’s practice squad or anything like that. He’s bringing in players and trying to make our team better.
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What makes you think Kelly has what it takes to be a GM?
I liked Champ when I interviewed him a year and a half ago for the general manager job. I was really glad that he came along as the assistant GM. That was a natural transition.
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Pierce is 2-3 since he stepped in for McDaniels eight games into the season. He started strong with two straight wins, but you’ve lost three games in a row. What’s your impression of how the team is playing?
I think the effort of this team has been consistent all season long, to be real honest. Even through the first eight games, I thought we were playing really hard, and they weren’t quitting. I think they’ve continued that under Antonio, no question about that.
The players have praised Pierce for his leadership ability. Have you seen that?
Absolutely. I’ve heard. In trying to analyze all of this, I’ve kind of looked at it as there’s four types of head coaches: There’s somebody who’s an offensive guru, so to speak. There’s somebody who’s a defensive guru, so to speak. And then you’ve got the special teams guy, like a (Baltimore Ravens coach) John Harbaugh, who’s kind of got a little bit of both sides and has dealt with all the players. And then there’s the leadership kind of guy; he’s got experience on one side of the ball or the other, but he’s not considered the expert on this or that. He can put a staff around him and be a leader. And so there’s four different kinds of ways to look at it. And if I were to put Antonio as one of those groupings right now, I’d put him into the leadership role.
So, to analyze him at this point is to understand, “Exactly what situation did he come into?” And when we made the switch from Josh McDaniels, what we took away from the team was an offensive guru mindset as the leader of the offense and Mick Lombardi, who was the offensive coordinator. With the two of them leaving, the offense was now put in the hands of Bo Hardegree. So, in that regard, Antonio is a rookie head coach with a rookie quarterback and, really, a rookie offensive coordinator who’s never done it before. I put a lot of stress and pressure on that side of the football. And so, as the results haven’t been there, you have to understand why there might not be results. Those are things I understand and go into the evaluation process of where the team is.
The defense has excelled on the other side of the ball, but the offense hasn’t been able to take advantage. How frustrating has that been?
You go back two years, and our offense is scoring and our defense was scoring even more for the other side (laughs). Now, it’s flipped on its head. It’s amazing that that’s what happened at this point. But I mean, to lose a game 3-0 (against the Minnesota Vikings) is quite a feat.
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What are you looking for from Pierce and the coaching staff in the last four games?
You know, I’m taking everything week to week and seeing how they rise to the occasion. I think the team has bought into Antonio. They respect him, and I think they want to play for him. (Defensive coordinator) Patrick (Graham) is doing a good job on the defensive side of the ball right now. So, we’ll see. It’s just hard to say in the middle of this, “What is the goal? What am I looking for?” Every day I learn something new about Antonio, but also Champ as well.
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You’ve said you want to remain open-minded going into this coaching search. What does that look like as you go into the hiring process?
It’s wide open. But it’s tough at the same time because I do have Antonio and Champ in those positions, and I’d like for them to get the job. So, if I start to feel like that’s definitely the way I’m going to go — which I’m not there — then I don’t want to mislead people in the interview process. So, it’s going to be a really interesting dynamic in trying to keep my mind open to the potential hirings.
I don’t believe you can tie Antonio and Champ at the hip. It’s not both or none. It could be one or the other. I just don’t know. I’m not making a commitment right now. So, in the process, I’m getting a lot of calls from people who have clients who they feel would be great for the job. I’m banking those names, and we’ll see what happens once the season is over.
Is it challenging to maintain that balance?
No. It’s life. It’s the process of life and how things go. It’s not difficult.
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Do you think you’ll hire the GM or head coach first?
I believe the GM has to have some say in who the coaching staff is going to be. At this stage, it would probably be the GM first. I’m not making a commitment to that, but I think so. And I think there’s been a misconception on the last head coach and general manager and who had the authority. Lately, some articles have come out making it seem like the head coach had more authority on that, and that’s the furthest thing from the truth. The general manager had the final authority on all of it. Whether he accepted that authority or not is a different story, but it was very clear when they were hired where the buck stopped.
Do you want to continue to have the GM have that final say when it comes to personnel decisions?
Well, I don’t know. Again, I grew up in a different type of structure. My father worked with the head coach quite a bit, but then he had (former Raiders scout) Ron Wolf, who was very, very good at player personnel and things like that. And I think that the triumvirate in that regard worked very well together. People think that their egos were all out there, but there was no ego at all. It was about who could they give to the coach to help him do his job and be great. Today, I don’t know. I don’t know. Because I don’t have that ability that my father had in judging talent. So, that’s a missing piece to the puzzle, so to speak, is a solid football mind that isn’t the GM or the head coach. And I think that’s a piece that’s probably going to be necessary somewhere down the line is bringing in somebody that understands that football that’s above the day-to-day work.
When did you recognize the need for that?
It’s something that I learned over time, but it is something that I recognized immediately as well. I mean, if you think about it, when my dad passed away, there wasn’t a general manager on the team, so to speak. And the first person I hired was Reggie McKenzie as a GM to put somebody that’s had 17 years of experience in player personnel in charge of that. Now, he was a rookie GM, but he had the experience for many, many years in an organization (the Green Bay Packers) that was very good at player personnel. So, I knew to get that. I think with Reggie and I, where the issue with the situation was is Reggie hired a rookie head coach (Dennis Allen). So, I had a rookie GM and a rookie head coach. We didn’t have a great football mind in the building to help them. That’s something I’ve learned throughout the process.
As the person who makes all of the final decisions, the onus for the state of the team ultimately rests with you. How do you plan to accept that culpability in your effort to turn things around?
I look in the mirror and the buck stops with me. If there’s anything wrong with the Raiders since I’ve taken over and it’s been a failure on the football side, it’s my failure. I’m the one who’s hiring people. So, there’s nowhere to pass any of it but to me. But we’re coming up to bat. Let’s see if we can get it right this time. I would love for the guys that are in this job right now to be able to keep it, but we’ll see how that goes.
(Top photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
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