OPINION
Las Vegas Raiders fired the wrong coach and Mark Davis’ $6.7 billion circus act is failing so badly that Maxx Crosby is furious
Antonio Pierce's name was missing from the Las Vegas Raiders' latest "fired" list.
Owner Mark Davis, of course, was nowhere to be found.
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Instead, first-year offensive coordinator Luke Getsy got the axe, even though he wasn't in charge of the 2-7 Raiders.
James Cregg (offensive line) and Rich Scangarello (quarterbacks) also were coldly tossed in the trash can, despite the fact that Pierce and Davis signed off on the absurd idea that Gardner Minshew was good enough to be a winning QB in a division that features Patrick Mahomes at the top and Bo Nix on the rise.
Throw in the fact that Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh are now a winning pair in the AFC West, and the Raiders would have been better off getting the job right on Sunday by sacking Pierce just before a bye week.
“It f****** sucks to lose five in a row,” said star defender Maxx Crosby, after the Raiders were torched by the Bengals in Cincinnati.
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The only problem with that?
Crosby was one of Pierce's biggest backers last year, which means that Las Vegas' best player also picked the wrong head coach.
"I want to be a Raider," Crosby said earlier this year. "But if we go in a different direction, there is nothing that is off the table."
The table is now broken.
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Crosby leads daily NFL trade rumors, to the point that he struggles to turn on his phone without being flooded with photoshopped versions of himself in a different uniform.
Pierce is the head coach of an increasingly dysfunctional team that leads the league in turnovers (19) and has the worst turnover differential (minus-14) in the sport.
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"Antonio Pierce is the worst head coach in the history of the Raiders," one fan tweeted.
Dennis Allen, Lane Kiffin, Josh McDaniels and Marty Feldman are also in the running.
Allen was also fired by the New Orleans Saints on Monday, after former wide receiver Mike Thomas took social media shots at QB Derek Carr.
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But it's clear after just nine games that Pierce isn't the right answer in 2024, and he could be even worse at the helm of a massive rebuild.
Pierce hired his staff, and three coaches have already been axed to answer for a 2-7 start.
The Raiders are valued at $6.7 billion by Forbes and Allegiant Stadium hosted the last Super Bowl, so money isn't a problem for Davis.
Winning in the NFL still is, and the Raiders haven't been right since Jack Del Rio went 12-4 almost a decade ago.
He was then fired in 2018, Gruden was infamously re-hired only to became a $100 million embarrassment for Davis, and now Pierce is getting it wrong weekly.
As a real-world football brand, the Raiders are almost worth zero in 2024.
That doesn't add up with Tom Brady buying in as part-owner and rumors already rumbling that he'll take an active role in future changes.
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"We have to take our ownership as players," Carr said in 2018, when he was the Raiders' QB. "That's where we're at right now. We're kind of angry we let it get to that.
"We're upset at ourselves. We understand the business part of it. As players our job is to come back better and hungry."
Six years later, Crosby sounds like Carr, and the Raiders are still firing the wrong people.
Like Jerry Jones, Davis won't fire himself.
But it's obvious who's next to walk the plank if the losing continues in Las Vegas.
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Pierce -- the HC who Crosby wanted so badly less than a year ago.
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