Since taking over ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders, Mark Davis has cycled through many different head coaches. During his time as the owner, the team has made the playoffs just twice.
This offseason, he decided to move off of Antonio Pierce after just one season in favor of Pete Carroll. The hope was that his proven track record as a winner would finally help build something consistent in Las Vegas.
The opposite has been true. The Raiders are 2-5 and appear headed for disaster. They just played one of the worst games any team has played in NFL history in the 31-0 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7.
This led to many calling for Carroll and general manager John Spytek to get fired just seven games into their tenures. However, Davis came out and made it clear that he’s not firing either of them yet.
“You have to have faith in the people that you hired. And I do,” Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “You’ve got to give them a chance to do the job.”
Davis admitted that he was considering his options after the Chiefs’ loss.
“You start questioning the players. You start questioning the coaching,” Davis said. “You start questioning everything.”
In the end, he wanted to stick to the plan.
“I had faith in the leadership that I hired,” he added.
Davis Is Going to Let Carroll & Spytek Do Their Job
No matter how bleak things look for the Raiders right now, it’s going to be impossible to win if they hire and fire head coaches every year. Davis just saw the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA win their third championship in four years.
While they’re very different situations, Davis is trying to let his coaches and general managers operate without him hovering over them.
“You always question, but as I did with the Aces, I had faith in the leadership, just as I have faith in the people that I hired here as the head coach and general manager,” Davis said. “And I’m going to let them do their job and let’s see what the results are.”
Davis Has to Give Carroll At Least 1 Full Season
Firing Carroll in the middle of the season would be a massive mistake. The Raiders aren’t going to go to the playoffs with the lack of talent on their roster, regardless of who the head coach is.
As Davis is well aware, hiring interim head coaches can lead to unnecessary drama later. Does he want to get pigeon-holed into making a head coaching hire he doesn’t want in the same way he had to with Pierce last year? It’s hard to imagine he does, unless he believes defensive coordinator Patrick Graham could be the head coach of the future.
Also, the Tom Brady factor can’t be ignored. It’s no secret that he’s closely involved with Davis when it comes to these decisions. He knows that constant instability at head coach makes it very difficult to build a winner. Unless he tells Davis to fire Carroll, it’s unlikely that he will this soon.
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