COSTA MESA, Calif. – For someone supposedly in such a difficult position, Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce sure hasn’t appeared burdened.
The Raiders have only had a winning record in two of the last 21 seasons and their most recent postseason victory came during former President George W. Bush’s first term in office. Considering the franchise’s long-running problems, it would seem the Raiders’ iconic motto needs updating: Just win eventually, baby?
But if Pierce, who’s beginning his first full season as the Raiders’ on-field leader, is rattled about the team’s vast perceived deficiencies, he has disguised it well.
As Pierce darted around monitoring drills during training camp recently, his face was creased with a wide grin. Clearly he was energized in his brief meetings with assistant coaches and support staff between practice periods. And in his interactions with the Raiders’ diehard fans and reporters who cover the team, Pierce was an engaging ambassador for the franchise.
He isn’t sticking his head in the sand, Pierce said. He knows the Raiders are a work in progress. It’s just that Pierce has shocked doubters his entire football career, so he’s not changing course now. Let others focus on the Raiders’ apparent shortcomings. Pierce has work to do. And make no mistake, he said, it will be done.
“My whole life [I’ve had a] backed-against-the-wall mentality,” Pierce told Andscape. “I’ve always been told what I can’t do. And when you have the opportunity to go out there and do it, and you’ve showcased [previously] you can do it, why wouldn’t you believe you could do it again? And why wouldn’t you talk about doing it from now on?”
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Within the Raiders’ organization, Pierce is revered for walking the talk.
In November 2023, Pierce was only in his second year as the team’s linebackers coach when club owner Mark Davis tapped him to be the interim coach. Amid a major organizational shakeup, Davis had ousted then-coach Josh McDaniels, who failed to connect with players as Las Vegas devolved into a 3-5 mess.
The ineffectual Daniels seemed stuck in the past of his glory days as an assistant coach with the New England Patriots, which meant as much to the Raiders as the brand of light bulbs used at their Henderson, Nevada, headquarters. Immediately, Pierce set about rebuilding bridges in the locker room, which he’s used to doing.
Throughout his NFL playing days with the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants, the former middle linebacker was an outstanding teammate and leader, former NFL players said. Pierce emphasized hard work, trust and accountability, telling Raiders players and coaches he wouldn’t expect anything less from himself than he asked of them. For grown men tired of the mini-dictator approach, Pierce’s style was refreshing.
The change in management philosophy manifested in improvement on the field.
Under Pierce, the Raiders went 5-4. Among the victories was a 20-14 win over the archrival Kansas City Chiefs at Kansas City on Christmas Day, which delighted Davis and played a role in Pierce being rewarded with a multiyear contract to stay on the job. Confident he was the right person to lead the Raiders, Pierce proved it to Davis as well.
“It’s not always picture-perfect. Sometimes things don’t go the way you think they’re going to go, and some things are just out of your control,” Pierce said. “The one thing that I could control was the effort. That’s something that you can do each day.
“The good part about that is everyone can see the effort. They can see what you expect from yourself and what [standard] you put on yourself. Our players, the coaching staff and Raider Nation saw that, and they were behind me to be the head coach going forward. Mr. Davis saw that as well.”
From what the players saw daily, there was much to like about Pierce, superstar wide receiver Davante Adams said.
“A.P. is the right coach for any team,” the three-time first-team All-Pro said. “He is real. He’s understanding. He’s very realistic [about the difficulties of the game], but he also upholds and maintains the standard of ball that he believes in and that we all believe in. It’s just real, real easy to follow a guy [who] understands the big picture and has the same mindset we have as players. It’s easy to get behind that.”
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Born and reared in Southern California, Pierce, 45, fell in love with both football and the Raiders in childhood. In 1982, the franchise relocated from Oakland, California, where it was founded in 1960, to Los Angeles, playing its home games at the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Although Pierce emerged as a standout linebacker and fullback at Paramount High in Paramount, California, he wasn’t considered an elite college prospect. After two years at Mount San Antonio College, a community college in Walnut, California, Pierce transferred to the University of Arizona. Despite his solid performance for the Wildcats, Pierce wasn’t selected in the 2001 NFL draft.
Washington signed Pierce as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2001. Undeterred by how he entered the NFL, Pierce set about proving he belonged in it.
In his fourth season, the determined Pierce went from being a special teams player and seldom-used linebacker on defense to becoming the team’s starting middle linebacker. He was rewarded for his stick-to-itiveness when the Giants signed him in free agency after the season in 2005.
Pierce finished his playing career with the Giants, becoming a team captain, being selected to the Pro Bowl and helping the Giants win Super Bowl XLII over heavily favored New England, which was vying to become only the second undefeated team in league history. Before joining the Raiders, Pierce was an ESPN analyst and spent five seasons coaching at Arizona State.
Including interim coaches, the Raiders have had 13 head coaches in the past 21 seasons. For Pierce to enjoy longevity in his position, he’ll have to get it figured out at quarterback. Quickly. Second-year player Aidan O’Connell, who had some good moments as a rookie with Las Vegas last season, is competing with journeyman Gardner Minshew II for the top spot.
It could be said that the Raiders have the misfortune of playing in the AFC West, which is run by the two-time defending Super Bowl-champion Chiefs. Kansas City has won three Super Bowl championships in five seasons to become the NFL’s newest dynasty, and it has won eight straight division titles.
Pierce is well aware of the Chiefs’ long list of achievements, but he won’t settle for mediocrity. He won’t permit the people who report to him to do it, either.
“You coach and play this game to win the Lombardi [Super Bowl trophy]. That’s it,” Pierce said. “So that’s what we’re chasing.
“But more importantly, for this organization, there’s more to it after not having the success over the last 25 years that we’re used to having. It would great to see, for myself and this team, to bring something back for Raider Nation. To bring back the glory.”
To achieve that, the Raiders, as is the case with the rest of the AFC, will have to contend with the Chiefs. Kansas City has appeared in six consecutive AFC Championship games, winning four.
Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes, generally regarded as the league’s best player, has terrorized the Raiders in 12 games he has started against them in his career, passing for 30 touchdowns with only four interceptions. In those games, the Chiefs are 10-2. That’s why Pierce devised “The Patrick Mahomes Rules.”
In short, Pierce’s strategy emphasizes the use of physicality against Mahomes (within the rules, of course), hoping to affect the three-time Super Bowl MVP psychologically. The concept harkens back to “The Jordan Rules,” the successful plan employed by the Detroit Pistons during the late 1980s in an effort demoralize Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan, then basketball’s best player, in the playoffs.
A coach calling for defensive players to push the envelope in harassing the league’s most high-profile quarterback is the sort of thing that plays great in the locker room. But not so much in the league office.
To be sure, NFL game officials will be extra vigilant in monitoring things when the teams play this season. Wisely, the Raiders have cooled it on commenting on the subject.
For his part, Pierce said he isn’t backtracking on any of his actions since becoming the Raiders’ coach “because at the end of the day, you’ve got to try something different. You’ve got to try to make the change you want. I want to win. I want to win for the coaches, the players, Mr. Davis … everyone in Raider Nation. If we do that, if we get back to having that success again, that will make me happy.”
And while pursuing happiness, Pierce will show up to work each day with a positive outlook, striving to prove his doubters wrong. So far, the approach has served him well.