The Raiders already have their top choice in Rich Bisaccia
The Las Vegas Raiders have always operated in a bizarre way. That was true when they signed Jon Gruden to a 10-year deal, only for him to be forced to resign this year due to an email scandal.
That left Rich Bisaccia as the interim head coach and Mike Mayock, who was Gruden's pick, as the GM. The duo led Las Vegas into the postseason, where the team fell to the Cincinnati Bengals. Then ownership got to work requesting interviews for both head coach and GM, even though the latter position was filled by Mayock.
Mayock is now out and Bisaccia has lost the interim tag and finds himself in no man's land in terms of job status. The same is true for his entire staff. But he is being given a chance as he has his interview Wednesday.
The #Raiders will conduct their interview with interim coach Rich Bisaccia today for their head coach job, source said. His chance to stake his claim.
The team is going to conduct a proper search that should include some big names. Yet that may be a mistake because Bisaccia seems to be the best choice and is sitting right in front of ownership's eyes.
Rich Bisaccia is a great organizational fit for the Raiders
Bisaccia was on Gruden's staff as an assistant head coach and special teams coordinator. He has been an assistant coach all around the NFL, including stints with the Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bisaccia brings a ton of experience, so having him slide into the interim head coaching position in Las Vegas was a no-brainer.
He then went 7-5 in the regular season and guided the Raiders to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They lost, but the Wild Card encounter against the favored Cincinnati Bengals proved to be a competitive one as they went down 26-19.
Bisaccia's record alone since taking the helm should make him an obvious choice. But let's also not forget the adversity this team went through in 2021. Gruden's resignation could have easily derailed the Raiders' season, resulting in a lost year.
Then came the Henry Ruggs incident, in which he was involved in a car accident that killed a young woman. The receiver's life changed overnight as he was released from the team and arrested by the authorities. The Raiders had to address this to the media, but still never faltered.
To whether such a storm as a team takes some serious leadership and Bisaccia showed it all year. He even went as far as to write notes to every single player on the team following the playoff loss to the Bengals.
After the Raiders’ season-ending loss, interim HC Rich Bisaccia returned to his Cincinnati hotel room.
There, he hand-wrote personal thank you notes to his entire team.
His daughter posted the moment to Facebook.
Today, Bisaccia interviews for the Vegas head coach position. https://t.co/lJ2DXFwkq7
The Raiders have had major turnover at the head coaching spot for decades. The team went to the Super Bowl during the 2002 season with Bill Callahan. Since then, the team has seen the likes of Lane Kiffin, Hue Jackson, Dennis Allen, Tom Cable and others fail to stick around for more than a few years.
Bisaccia helped his team get to the postseason for only the second time since that last Super Bowl appearance. He accomplished this feat having taken over as head coach in what was basically the middle of the season.
Bisaccia also clearly loves his players and no one on the Raiders roster has said anything bad about him to the media. Moving on from him now would only lead to more change, for a team that is in desperate need of stability,
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