It’s amazing to see the number of chances that NFL coach Josh McDaniels gets that others more deserving most certainly do not.
As the current head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, McDaniels’s team fell to 2-5 after Sunday’s 24-0 obliteration by the Saints in New Orleans.
Coming off a big win last week over the Texans, which isn’t that hard considering Houston’s record, the Raiders looked listless and disinterested in Sunday’s contest. It was almost like they didn’t care.
When a team shows that type of effort and concern, it’s a reflection of leadership, and that starts and ends with Josh McDaniels.
McDaniels garners attention for his success as an offensive coordinator, and rightfully so. Yet when he’s handed the heading coaching reins, he fails to live up to the hype.
Remember, he took over a Raiders organization that finished 10-7 and second in the AFC West in 2021. That team was led by interim head coach Rich Bisaccia after Jon Gruden was fired after week 5 due to the email scandal that broke in October 2021. Bisaccia, to his credit, rallied the team and went 7-5 after Gruden started 3-2.
Despite the results, the team wanted someone different. A coach who acquiesced to the prototype of NFL head coaches owners more frequently desired.
Young, offensive-minded coaches who could cultivate offenses, develop quarterbacks and put points on the board.
And the color of their skin was a factor based on the fact that only two Black head coaches, David Culley (2021) and Lovie Smith (2022), were hired out of 16 initial openings over two years; Todd Bowles ascended to Tampa’s head coach after Bruce Arians revealed his succession plan.
To the Raiders, Josh McDaniels was that special someone. They hoped he would become the face of the franchise and finally lead it out of the Wild Card round to the Super Bowl, something the team hadn’t done since 2002.
Instead, they’ve found out what most of us already knew.
Josh McDaniels is not a head coach.
Good offensive coordinator? Yes.
But head coach material? Definitely not.
The Raiders even went out and traded two first-round picks to Green Bay for Davante Adams to give Derek Carr more offensive firepower.
While that’s a work in progress, the team’s future success is not. That’s evidenced by the blanking they took in the Bayou on Sunday.
And that proves, once again, that McDaniels is simply not head coaching stock.
Don’t forget, McDaniels was once the 33-year-old hot coaching commodity from the Bill Belichick tree that was supposed to lead the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl.
Instead, he amassed an 11-17 record over two seasons with the Broncos before he was fired after week 13 in his second season with the team in 2010. Afterward, he made a one-year pitstop in St. Louis as the Rams’ offensive coordinator before running back to Belichick’s open arms in New England.
Then in 2018, McDaniels was poised to become the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. But he gave the Colts a “Nah, I’m good” and stayed in New England.
“There are a lot of things that go into these opportunities and chances to advance,” McDaniels said, per Colts Wire. “At the end of the day, the best thing for me at that time was to stay. And it took me a little longer than I wish that it had to realize that, but once I realized that that was the right decision, I felt like I had to do that even though it was going to be unpopular.”
Despite all of that, Raiders owner Mark Davis was so “blown away” by McDaniels during their interview that he completely ignored Bisaccia’s accomplishments and hired McDaniel.
And Davis has been rewarded with the team’s current standing.
There are still 11 games remaining in the season, so the Raiders have time to turn things around. But after Sunday, it’s a tougher task.
McDaniels has received three chances at becoming a head coach, something many deserving coaches rarely get a chance at.
For Black coaches, that’s essentially a fairy tale scenario. Just ask Jim Caldwell.
At this point, it appears the Raiders would have been better off retaining Rich Bisaccia. To keep a team together and earn a Wild Card berth was a testament to his talents, and he deserved another shot as the team’s head coach.
Instead, Mark Davis fell victim to the same mistake plaguing other NFL teams, particularly in the AFC West- being charmed by offensive coordinators and individuals of similar ilk.
But that trend is not working out for the Raiders, Broncos or Chargers right now. The same could be said of the Cardinals and Lions as well.
Come January, there will be multiple head coaching vacancies. If things in Las Vegas continue in the current direction, expect the Raiders to hold one of those vacancies.
And if Josh McDaniels gets a fourth chance at being a head coach, then he needs to write a book telling us what he knows that we don’t.
