Antonio Pierce took over for the Las Vegas Raiders midway through last season, and it was night and day in terms of the difference of the players. He brought the energy into the locker room and is the guy who switched things up from what Josh McDaniels was doing.
He could relate to the players on a level that McDaniels couldn't, and ultimately that's why he is the head coach for the 2024 season, and hopefully for the foreseeable future. It's obvious that what he has already done is impressive, and if he can translate it to better play on the field, the Raiders will be fine. But, that seems to be a big if.
Training camp is here , and while the defense is dominating, the offense, particularly the two quarterbacks, seems to be taking one step forward, and then two steps back. They cannot get anything to go their way yet. Now, it's still early, and Pierce doesn't seem to be too worried about that, but it's a concern nonetheless.
For all of this to work, the players have to be bought into the system and the culture. If they aren't, it won't work. So, Antonio Pierce decided to take the definition of a players' coach to a whole other level.
Vic Tafur over at The Athletic, came out with a story on Antonio Pierce and one of his new coaching strategies, and it's really genius. Pierce and all of the coaches on the Raiders staff did some of the conditioning work with the players.
“The players laughed a lot,” Pierce said. “We had Rob (Ryan) go out there with his shirt off and belly out. We had Marvin Lewis, 65 years old, and Joe Philbin on the bike. And then you had a couple of guys who played in the league thinking that they were sprinters still, and they came up lame on a couple of the runs.”
That's one way to show the players that you mean business. It's also one way to show that you are just as bought in as they are, if not more, and you're willing to do the work you're asking them to do. Believe it or not, players love that, and we have seen it in the NFL before with other coaches like Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams. It also helps that it's 75 degrees in Southern California rather than the 110 degrees in Las Vegas.
Pierce seems to know what he is doing.
Related: Antonio Pierce had to bring in the perfect person to hype up the Raiders offensive line during training camp
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