It’s pretty uncommon to see a team hire a head coach before they have a general manager installed. It’s uncommon because the general manager is usually the one hiring the head coach, not the other way around.
But Mark Davis believes in Antonio Pierce so much that he decided to ink him to a new deal before deciding on a GM. The Raiders were able to accomplish that a few days later, but the order in which this was decided is interesting.
Does Pierce now have more organizational power than new GM Tom Telesco? That remains to be seen. But one thing that is clear is that Telesco will be the one making the decisions about the roster. Here is what Paul Gutierrez had to say about the Pierce-Telesco dynamic going into the offseason:
Raiders owner Mark Davis told ESPN that the general manager will have final say on all personnel decisions, and the biggest one is at quarterback, where rookie Aidan O’Connell was inconsistent after taking over for Jimmy Garoppolo midseason.
Pierce wants a franchise signal-caller, and he has a relationship with Heisman winner Jayden Daniels (LSU) from when they were both at Arizona State. But jumping from the No. 13 pick in the draft to No. 2 or No. 3 might be too rich for Telesco’s taste.
Telesco has a very mixed track record when it comes to drafting, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he leaned on Pierce heavily to make decisions. The most important decision they need to make this offseason is at quarterback. How they handle that will tell us everything we need to know about how the pairing will work out in Las Vegas.
