Antonio Pierce of the Raiders has a seasoned sounding board in Marvin Lewis.
The Las Vegas Raiders will be adding (or subtracting) coaches over the next few days and weeks with the hiring of head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco.
With the top two spots in the Silver & Black secured, the next big piece of information to fall will probably be the hiring of a new offensive coordinator. However, one anticipated change is also in the works: Pierce’s mentor and former head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, Marvin Lewis, will be joining the coaching staff.
Lewis and Pierce have a long history together. When Lewis was the defensive coordinator and Pierce was a linebacker for the Washington Redskins in 2002, they had a player-coach relationship. Before Pierce joined the Raiders in 2022 as the linebackers coach, the two worked as peers for three seasons at Arizona State under head coach Herm Edwards.
It follows that Pierce’s appointment to the position of interim head coach for the final nine games of the 2023 season—the new face of the team and Lewis’ reunion—and Josh McDaniels’ firing as the Raiders head coach on November 1 came as no surprise. Both the rookie interim head coach and Pierce’s mentor, the tough-minded former New York Giants head coach who led his team to a Super Bowl victory while Pierce led the defense at linebacker, contributed their knowledge of defense to the renowned defensive mind. Bo Hardegree, the interim offensive coordinator, received help from Adam Gase as well, and it was this seasoned group that gave Pierce advice that he was eager to hear and understand.
