Will loss to Colts impact the futures of McDaniels and Carr in Vegas? | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the Raiders somewhat inexplicable loss to a Colts team who made a highly questionable change at head coach just six days prior to the game. What does this loss, along with the Raiders’ 2-7 record mean for the future of their first year head coach and veteran quarterback. Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
CHARLES ROBINSON: Jeff Saturday, he of no coaching experience--
FRANK SCHWAB: Zero.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --other than high school--
FRANK SCHWAB: Zero.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --high school level, defeats the Las Vegas Raiders 25 to 20. Derek Carr, afterward-- and I think this is extremely key-- as emotional as I've ever seen him, other than maybe with the Henry Ruggs stuff, and I felt like kind of pointed into the locker room. And it wasn't very specific, but it kind of felt like he was saying, not everybody here is giving everything they've got and wants to be here or whatever. That sort of felt like--
FRANK SCHWAB: Cares enough, cares enough about losing, yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Cares enough about-- OK, cares enough about-- I mean--
FRANK SCHWAB: That's what I got-- that's what I got out of it, yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah. And I-- is this horrible for McDaniels? Yes. And what I ended up writing was like, when I spent time with him in July, he kept talking about all these humbling experiences. And I'm like, bro, this has gone from humbling to humiliating. Like, this is--
FRANK SCHWAB: This is-- yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: It's the worst loss of his career. And they were at a spot where they absolutely needed to turn the tide, running up into a team that was spiraling--
FRANK SCHWAB: Coached by a high school coach
CHARLES ROBINSON: --so badly that they were coached by literally a high school coach, OK?
FRANK SCHWAB: Literally a high school coach.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Like, granted, former player, but a high school coach, OK, who was hired six days before they took the field. Didn't know who his offensive playcaller or his starting quarterback was going to be.
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Six days, did not know the quarterback or the offensive playcaller. Outgained them something like-- I think it was like 408 to 3. I mean, it was like--
FRANK SCHWAB: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
CHARLES ROBINSON: There's no worse loss. And when you look at owner, coach, GM, quarterback, right, those are the four fundamental pieces, out of all those pieces, one of them can be bounced after the season with a minimal salary cap hit and probably will be. And it's going to be the guy who was the emotional guy at the podium. That's how that feels.
FRANK SCHWAB: Look, I think context matters here too. Josh McDaniels wasn't just taking over some, like, 2 and 15 disaster. This team was in the playoffs last year.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yep.
FRANK SCHWAB: However they got there, I don't care. They dealt with a mountain of adversity to make the playoffs. They almost beat the Bengals. This was not a terrible team. And they went and added Davante Adams. I get what you mean about the line not being great. But you know what? The line was a great last year either, and they found a way to 10 wins. This team now is just a disaster. Like, they are awful. And it looks like they've-- they're really not even playing hard for Josh McDaniels right now. Maybe Derek Carr was alluding to that.
And I think my argument-- look, I agree with you in theory. Coaches deserve more than one year. It's crazy to fire a coach after one year. But I will say this, this almost feels-- if Josh comes back next year, it has a little bit of feeling of Matt Rhule coming back for the Panthers this year, Matt Nagy coming back for the Bears last year. We knew it's not going to work out.
Josh McDaniels is a bad NFL head coach. He has lost, I believe, now 24 of his last 31 games as an NFL head coach. He has been out of the Belichick cocoon four times, OK? One was with the Broncos, which was the-- aside from Urban Meyer, one of the worst coaching disasters in NFL history. The second time was when he was the Rams offensive coordinator.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Awful.
FRANK SCHWAB: He was awful there, shockingly awful. Like, you're like, whoa, maybe this guy is not even an offensive coordinator. It goes back to New England resurrects his career. Third time, he stands the Colts up at the altar after agreeing to take the job. That should have been a red flag, blaring alarm to everybody in the NFL, do not hire this guy.
CHARLES ROBINSON: It supposedly was when it happened. Yeah, I mean--
FRANK SCHWAB: Do not hire this guy. Like, no, don't do it. And the fourth time is the Raiders, and he has taken a playoff team and now has them in contention for a top three pick of the draft. At what point do we just say, you know what, yeah, we could give him McDaniels another year, but we're just wasting a year? He's not good. He's not a good NFL head coach. I don't think Mark Davis should have fired him today, like a lot of people were saying. I don't know if Mark Davis can afford to fire him today, but that's a different story.
Had we been talking about leading off this podcast with, hey, Josh McDaniels just got fired after nine games, I'd havev been like, OK, it's justified. Like, what has he done this year to earn any more time? I think he's kind of dead man walking the rest of the year. I think they got to turn this-- they can't just go 1 and 7 the rest of the way, Charles. They-- I think they need to show some signs of progress, or it's going to be, what are we doing wasting a second year on this guy?