LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Super Bowl matchup is set \u2014 New England vs. Seattle.<\/p>\n
Six NFL teams have already hired new head coaches, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are going with Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy, the former Packers and Cowboys head coach.<\/p>\n
The Raiders? They\u2019re still shopping for Pete Carroll\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n
It has been nearly three weeks since the head coach\u2019s office at the Intermountain Health Performance Center in Henderson has been made vacant. And what it tells me is that the Raiders are actually trying to do things the right way.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve talked to former head coaches. They\u2019ve interviewed offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches and defensive coordinators. They\u2019ve complied with the NFL\u2019s \u201dRooney Rule\u201d which meant they talked to a minority candidate for the position.<\/p>\n
According to their own website, they\u2019ve formally interviewed 14 people and that list may grow if the reports about former Giants coach Brian Daboll and former Bills coach Sean McDermott interviewing are true. Some will be getting a second interview in the next few days as the team closes in on who it wants to hire.<\/p>\n
Everyone has their own idea of who is best suited to take over coaching the Silver and Black. Me? If they could\u2019ve gotten John Harbaugh or Kevin Stefanski, that would\u2019ve been the right call as experience is important. And maybe McDermott winds up with the job. He had a good run in Buffalo with Josh Allen even though he couldn\u2019t get to the Super Bowl, much less win one, due in large part to some guy named Mahomes.<\/p>\n
But while experience certainly is a good thing, so is ability and talent along with a different perspective on how to win. And if you\u2019re Davis Webb, the Broncos\u2019 QB coach or Klint Kubiak the Seahawks\u2019 offensive coordinator or his brother Klay, who is the 49ers\u2019 OC, we\u2019re talking younger guys who can perhaps relate well to today\u2019s players.<\/p>\n
And whoever is hired better be able to work with Fernando Mendoza, the likely selection when the Raiders pick first in April\u2019s NFL Draft. The Indiana quarterback who led the Hoosiers to a perfect 16-0 season and has officially declared for the draft, is going to need someone to teach him about playing the position at the NFL level, to grow together with him, to be there with tough love when necessary and get his teammates assimilated with Mendoza so come Week 1, he doesn\u2019t feel like he\u2019s lost in the fog.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s why I kinda lean toward one of the Kubiaks or Webb. I look at the job each has managed to do with his team\u2019s quarterback and integrating it into that team\u2019s offense. Look what Webb has done with Bo Nix in Denver, what Klint has done with Sam Darnold in Seattle and what Klay has done with Brock Purdy in San Francisco. Who wouldn\u2019t want one of those guys calling signals for their team?<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s not forget the GOAT in the room.<\/p>\n
Yes, Tom Brady is a big part in all of this. He has been an active participant in the search for the new Raiders coach and it stands to reason once that person is hired, Brady will make himself available to talk strategy, hopefully work with Mendoza and the rest of the QB room and help put his stamp on the next chapter of the organization\u2019s attempt to finally regain its footing and be competitive and ultimately, successful.<\/p>\n
Some believe Brady so far is no better an executive in football than Michael Jordan was in basketball. Certainly, he\u2019s not in Jerry West\u2019s league. Or even Steve Yzerman, who built a roster in Tampa that won the Lightning a couple of Stanley Cups. But Brady is still new at this ownership thing and perhaps he\u2019s still trying to find his way as to where his say begins and ends. Because remember, he\u2019s a minority owner. Mark Davis still has the final say over who gets hired to be the head coach.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s remember the Raiders have tried it every which way during Mark Davis\u2019 tenure as owner, which dates back to 2011 following Al Davis\u2019 death. They\u2019ve tried the NFL head coach experience route (Jon Gruden, Carroll). They\u2019ve gone with coordinators (Josh McDaniels, Dennis Allen). They\u2019ve tried defensive guys (Jack Del Rio, Antonio Pierce), special teams guys (Rich Bisaccia), offensive guys (Tony Sparano). So far, it\u2019s resulted in two playoff appearances, both losses in the Wild Card round.<\/p>\n
Two teams that tried it different ways a year ago seem happy. Chicago hired Ben Johnson, who was the Lions\u2019 offensive coordinator and the Bears made a quantum leap forward. New England hired veteran NFL coach Mike Vrabel, a former patriots player who had a pretty good run in Tennessee before things went sideways. All he did was lead the Pats back to the Super Bowl this year. Which proves that there\u2019s no one guaranteed path to success in the NFL. \u00a0<\/p>\n
So they better get this one right.<\/p>\n
Will they?<\/p>\n
Give the Raiders credit for at least being patient and meticulous in the process. They didn\u2019t buy the first thing they saw. I\u2019d like to think that\u2019s because general manager John Spytek fully understands the gravity of the situation, that he knows his own future with the Raiders likely hinges on getting the right hire for the head coach, that when they draft Mendoza, they have a plan to develop him, build the offense around him, Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers and use the remainder of their draft capital wisely to shore up the offensive line, the linebacker corps and the secondary, assuming they retain Maxx Crosby and don\u2019t need to find the next great edge rusher.<\/p>\n
So fret not Raider Nation, your next head coach will be arriving shortly, perhaps some time this week. You may or may not like who they ultimately hire, but at least they were thorough in their pursuit. And that\u2019s an improvement over past hires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Super Bowl matchup is set \u2014 New England vs. Seattle. Six NFL teams have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[48886,7,4949,13610,8357,1744,393,2455,2454,12080,88,6,3976,525,3026,1369,23839],"class_list":["post-705513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-davis-webb","tag-football","tag-john-spytek","tag-klay-kubiak","tag-klint-kubiak","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-mark-davis","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-pete-carroll","tag-raiders","tag-sean-mcdermott","tag-tom-brady","tag-tst-las-vegas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115959477653707922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}