The Las Vegas Raiders have fired coach Josh McDaniels and general manager David Ziegler, the team announced Tuesday night.
“After much thought about what the riders need moving forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave,” owner Mark Davis said in a statement. “I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best.”
The Raiders plan to name linebackers coach Antonio Pierce as their interim head coach, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Davis had no further comment when contacted by ESPN.
The Raiders’ 26-14 loss to the Detroit Lions on “Monday Night Football” came a day after dropping the team to 3-5 this season.
McDaniels is in his second season leading the Raiders after signing a six-year contract through January 2022. Las Vegas has four full years left on his contract.
McDaniels finished his Raiders tenure with a 9-16 record and the third worst record by a Raiders coach with at least 25 games without a playoff appearance.
McDaniels was hired following the 2021 season, when Davis opted not to keep interim coach Rich Pisaccia on the job full-time, even after he led the team to a surprising playoff run.
McDaniels and Ziegler were aggressive in their first offseason, trading first- and second-round picks for Davante Adams, giving defensive end Chandler Jones a big free-agent contract and extending the contracts of Derek Carr, Maxx Crosby, Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow.
But those moves didn’t lead to positive results on the field, as Davis couldn’t produce the high-powered offense McDaniels hoped for when he hired him and struggled to win games.
The Raiders lost a streak of five games after blowing double-digit leads, including a 20-0 halftime lead at home against Arizona, the largest slump in franchise history. Las Vegas lost to Indianapolis in the Colts’ first game as an interim coach with Jeff Saturday, who hasn’t coached above the high school level, and then lost to Baker Mayfield and the Rams two days after Mayfield joined his new team.
McDaniels benched Carr late last season and the Raiders ultimately had no payoff for a starting quarterback who received a $150 million contract from New Orleans.
McDaniels brought in Jimmy Garoppolo, his former student, in New England as the new starting quarterback and the offense regressed hard, becoming the first team since 2009 to score fewer than 20 points in each of the first eight games of the season.
The last two weeks in particular have seen Las Vegas lose 30-12 to Chicago and Monday night’s loss at Detroit to undrafted former Division II quarterback Tyson Pageant looked completely incompetent.
Information from the Associated Press is included in this report.
