It seemed very possible that when Antonio Pierce took to the podium Sunday night after the Raiders lost their 13th game of the season to the Los Angeles Chargers, that it could be the last time he appeared before the media as Raiders head coach.
At the time, the Raiders had his usual press conference scheduled for Monday morning, but, obviously, if he were not retained as head coach, that press conference wouldn’t happen.
In that vein, the first, best sign for Pierce’s future as Raiders head coach was that the press conference did take place at all.
Monday morning, the embattled Pierce stepped behind the podium at the Raiders facility in Henderson Nevada not looking at all like a coach who was worried about his job.
The former NFL linebacker who grew up a Raiders fan in Los Angeles was sporting a vintage looking Raiders Starter jacket and appeared relaxed and ready to head into his second offseason as Raiders head coach.
Right away, he didn’t give his recent usual response of “no comment” to the inevitable questions about his job status, stating that he hadn’t been told anything different. And that the noise was all coming from outside the building, not inside of it. Seemingly calling back to a couple weeks ago when he said all of his conversations with owner Mark Davis had been positive.
From there, he was asked if he anticipated any coaching change. To which he said flatly “No.”
As the head coach of the team, that answer would seem to apply to him as well. And his answer would also suggest he expects to continue to be the one making those decisions.
Pierce had made some changes on the offensive staff earlier in the season, with the most notable firings being offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and offensive line coach James Cregg. To replace them he made Passing Game Coordinator Scott Turner interim OC and Joe Philbin interim OL coach.
He will have to make a decision on whether to keep Turner and Philbin in those positions or to move them back to their previous jobs and bring in someone from the outside.
The one caveat here could be Patrick Graham, who Pierce said he would like to have back, but added “we’ll see what happens this offseason” due to the fact that Graham could potentially receive outside interest.
But that decision would be out of his hands. If it’s up to Pierce, he is staying along with his entire current staff and running it back next year.