The Raiders cleaned house before going on a spending spree this offseason, dismissing coach Rich Bisaccia and general manager Mike Mayock and replacing the duo with former Patriots staffers Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, respectively. On Thursday, Mayock suggested one of the reasons for his firing was his desire to retain Bisaccia in 2022, with The 33rd Team reporting that team owner Mark Davis had all but decided to pursue a new head coach before the club’s 4-0 run to close the year.
“In my mind, I felt Richie had earned (the opportunity to remain the coach),” Mayock told Paul Domowitch. “I think the way we looked at the situation was, we got this thing going the right way. We built a strong foundation. We had one of the youngest rosters in the league. Our salary cap situation was outstanding. We felt like we had the right kind of people in the building and the foundation was built. Now let’s continue to build on it. The bottom line was we were both pretty excited about the future there. Obviously, that’s not what happened.”
Mayock, who was hired as Raiders GM in 2019, advocated for Bisaccia on several occasions, including the day after the team’s wild card loss to the Bengals, per The 33rd Team. In the end, Davis chose to wipe the entire slate clean. Mayock’s close personal relationship with former coach Jon Gruden, whose abrupt in-season resignation led to Bisaccia’s promotion, “likely didn’t help” his own job security, Domowitch writes. But Davis reportedly “was never sold” on the interim as a permanent solution atop the staff.
Bisaccia, now the special teams coordinator for the Packers, went 7-5 after replacing Gruden, winning five of his last seven regular-season games to clinch a playoff berth. Las Vegas lost to the Bengals 26-19 on Super Wild Card Weekend, before McDaniels and Ziegler were hired to headline the team’s new regime.
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