Mark Davis to Josh McDaniels: ‘I think he’s doing a fantastic job’
The Las Vegas Raiders have been one of the NFL’s most disappointing teams through ten weeks. Josh McDaniels’ squad is 2-7, including 0-6 in one-score games with not one, not two, but three blown 17-point leads.
McDaniels is now 13-24 in his career as head coach with Denver (2009-10) and now Las Vegas. And that includes a 6-0 stretch in his first season with Denver, when he allegedly cheated after a staffer was caught filming other teams’ practices.
Though it seems like Raiders owner Mark Davis feels different (publicly) than the Raiders fanbase, who have ripped McDaniels limb-from-limb throughout the season.
“I think he’s doing a fantastic job. That’s why I hired him,” Davis told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “We did an exhaustive search and found the person we believe is going to bring the Raiders to greatness.
“Life isn’t static. It’s fluid,” Davis said. “You want to win at the end of the year and be the one holding the trophy. Obviously, we’re not there yet. I know it’s frustrating for the fan base. I feel for them. I’m a fan as well.”
The Raiders have lost four of their last five games: A one-point loss (30-29) to Kansas City on Monday night in Week 5, a 24-point shutout loss to New Orleans in Week 8, a seven-point loss to Jacksonville (after leading by 17 midway through 2Q) in Week 9 and 25-20 to the Indianapolis Colts in Jeff Saturday’s debut as the Colts’ interim head coach Sunday.
They are currently last in the AFC West at 2-7 — one game back of Nathaniel Hackett’s Denver Broncos — despite promising hopes heading into the season after trading for star wide receiver Davante Adams.
“People in today’s world want instant gratification. The guy’s coached nine games,” Davis said, via ESPN Raiders reporter Paul Gutierrez. “We’re 2-7, not the results we’re looking for, but at the same time, we’ve lost six games where we’ve had the ball with a chance to win at the end … Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Find full quotes here.
Mark Davis reportedly met with McDaniels after Sunday’s loss, but Josh McDaniels played it off, indicating it was normal.
“We meet every week after every game, including the preseason,” McDaniels said. “That’s a normal occurrence for us. He’s been great. He’s been great. He has the same urgency that we all do, if not more. He’s been here a long time. He’s seen this when it’s been good, and he wants to win as bad or worse than anybody else does. He feels the frustration at the same time. He’s been incredibly supportive. That’s important obviously as you go forward. But we’re all here because of him and we want to do well for him and we want to do right by him.
“Whatever he feels, I want to know what it is. I think that’s my role, and my job is I hope I always understand where he’s at and he doesn’t hide anything from us. I appreciate the way he leads and his support, and you feel his urgency to try to do whatever he can do to help us get to where we want to be as fast as we can be there. I don’t know what else I could ask from him.
“I think there’s a process that we’re trying to go through,” McDaniels iterated Monday. “Certainly slower and more painful than anybody wants it to be. We share the same sentiment. … We all know we’re evaluated on what we do and it’s a production-based business.”
Full quote here.
Quarterback Derek Carr was visibly upset in lieu of Sunday’s result and how it’s spiraled throughout the season, saying, “for that to be the result of all that effort, pisses me off.”
While a head coach doesn’t typically get openly blasted by ownership during a middle of season — whether it’s deserved or not — Davis had awfully strong (positive) words towards McDaniels. Anything can happen in any given week, and feelings can change over time, but it looks as if McDaniels might not be on the hot seat that some prognosticators believe him to be on.
Vegas plays three of their next four on the road against Denver, Seattle and the Rams, with the Chargers at home. So, yes, it could get worse — but nothing (but probably the playoffs) should be out of the realm of possibility for McDaniels and his squad.
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