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Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels.
The calls for the Las Vegas Raiders to move on from head coach Josh McDaniels are only getting louder. Not only are fans harassing owner Mark Davis but now a former member of the team and Hall of Famer is voicing negative opinions about the coach.
“We got the wrong guy at the helm,” former defensive tackle Warren Sapp said of McDaniels on the October 24 episode of the “What The Football Podcast.” “We trying to implement something that is dead. The ‘Patriot Way’ is dead. Bill Belichick even knows it.
“The ‘Patriot Way’ is dead and Josh McDaniels is trying to recreate something that he doesn’t have the credentials for. He’s not Bill Belichick. We watched him do this in Denver when he drafted Tim Tebow and ran the Broncos into the ground. He’s gonna do the same [to the Raiders]. What did Maya Angelou say when someone shows you who they are the first time? Believe them.”
Sapp played with the Raiders from 2004 to 2007 so he knows the franchise well. He clearly doesn’t think McDaniels is the right guy to lead the team going forward. The coach has gone 9-15 since taking over the team last season. He went 11-17 during his stint with the Denver Broncos from 2009 to 2010.
Will Josh McDaniels Get Fired During the Season?
Josh McDaniels’ future is looking bleak in Las Vegas. Though Mark Davis is doing his best to remain patient, it doesn’t help that former players and fans are saying that the coach isn’t the right guy. However, it still seems far-fetched that the Raiders make a move during the season.
Firing McDaniels right now is highly unlikely to turn Las Vegas into a playoff team. There aren’t any coaches with head coaching experience on the staff right now. There isn’t an obvious candidate to take over for McDaniels. There isn’t much of a benefit to firing the coach right now.
Once the season ends, anything could happen, especially if the Raiders keep losing. For now, it’s difficult to see a scenario where McDaniels is fired during the season.
Josh McDaniels Not Trying to Panic After 7 Games
Things are looking bad for the Raiders right now but they are 3-4 and could get back in the playoff race with a couple of wins. For that to happen, the offense has to improve. The team is averaging 16.0 points a game, which third worst in the NFL.
Josh McDaniels is an offensive-minded coach so fixing the offense starts with him. Though many Raiders fans are panicking, the coach is trying to remain even-keeled.
“I’ve kind of been the same the whole way and we’re not going to lose our minds today,” McDaniels said during his October 23 media availability. “We’re just going to kind of try to fix the things that need to be fixed and take the same approach after we win or lose. We try to address the things that we can do better and correct.”
The Raiders play a tough Detroit Lions team in Week 8 but have two winnable games against the New York Giants and Jets in the following weeks. If the team comes out of this stretch 5-5, it’s still possible they could go on a run.
Austin Boyd has covered the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com since 2019. Born and raised in Los Angeles, his featured work at Heavy includes interviews with NFL stars Darren Waller and Joe Montana, and a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shop.” More about Austin Boyd
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