Breaking News: Raiders fire Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler

Per Schefter, McZiegs is out

The Las Vegas Raiders have fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

“After much thought about what the Raiders need to move forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave,” owner Mark Davis said in a statement, via Schefter. “I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best.”

Schefter also noted that McDaniels is on a six-year deal and the Raiders and owner Mark Davis are on the hook for the money the coach is owed over the next four years. Antonio Pierce will serve as the team’s interim head coach, also per Schefter, and Champ Kelly has been promoted to interim general manager, per ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez. McDaniels and Ziegler are also the first head coach and general manager in the NFL to be fired this season.

This comes after the Raiders lost to the Detroit Lions 26-14 on Monday Night Football and the offense only managed to score seven points with McDaniels calling the plays. Despite having wide receiver Davante Adams, running back Josh Jacobs and McDaniels’ hand-picked quarterback, Las Vegas’ offense has notably hasn’t scored 20 points this season.

McDaniels will finish with a 9-16 record as the Silver and Black’s head coach and holds a career record of 20-33.

Meanwhile, Ziegler leaves with plenty of knocks on his résumé as well.

Free agent signings like Chandler Jones and Jimmy Garoppolo have turned out to be giant flops. Handing out contract extensions to Derek Carr, Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow only to move on from them or want out of the deal a year later. And then there’s the mishandling of Jacobs’ contract situation, and Jacobs is rumored or presumed one of Davis’ favorites.

Plus, this year’s draft class has been rather uninspiring and the Raiders didn’t make any moves at the trade deadline despite being 3-5 at the halfway point of the season. McDaniels and Ziegler didn’t bother going for it by adding a player, nor did they add any pieces for the future.

In the end, the McDaniels and Ziegler era was more bad than good as just about everything they touched seemed to blow up in their faces.