Less than two years after hiring Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, Mark Davis has decided to fire them both.
In a stunning announcement that came out of nowhere on Tuesday night, the Raiders owner revealed that he was going to be cleaning house by dumping his head coach and general manager.
“After much thought about what the Raiders need to move forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave,” Davis said in a statement. “I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best.”
As recently as Oct. 1, Davis had defended McDaniels when some fans had called for him to be fired, but he clearly had a change of heart about his head coach in the weeks after. On Wednesday, it was reported by SI that the Raiders had also fired offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi.
McDaniels was on the hot seat after the Raiders got off to a 1-3 start, but things cooled down considerably after he led them to two straight wins with a 17-13 victory over the Packers in Week 5 and a 21-17 win over the Patriots in Week 6. However, the Raiders offense has taken a giant step back over the past two weeks, which clearly led to some serious frustrations for Davis.
The Raiders got destroyed 30-12 by a Bears team they were favored to beat in Week 7 and then they followed that up with a 26-14 loss to the Lions on Monday night in Week 8 in a game where Las Vegas only gained 157 yards of total offense. Those two losses dropped the Raiders to 3-5 and apparently, Davis finally decided that he had seen enough.
With McDaniels running the show, the Raiders offense didn’t hit the 20-point mark a single time through their first eight games, which is the longest drought by an NFL team to start a season since 2009.
Through the first eight weeks, the Raiders offense has been one of the worst in the NFL in nearly every major statistical category. The team ranked dead…
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