It turns out, Raiders owner Mark Davis learned from his last mistake.

Two years ago, when presented the opportunity to retain interim head coach Rich Bisaccia on a full-time basis, the Las Vegas Raiders opted to go another direction, hiring Josh McDaniels for the job instead. Two years later, after moving off McDaniels only a year and a half into his tenure with the Raiders, Davis is hiring interim head coach Antonio Pierce to the same title, sans “interim,” surely to the delight of the many players in the Raiders locker room who were vocal about Pierce returning in 2024. Now the question becomes, what does the rest of the Raiders coaching staff look like with Pierce at the helm, and to answer that question, I hand the imaginary mic over to NFL insider Tom Pelissero.

“As Antonio Pierce hires staff in Las Vegas, one name expected to be there is former #Bengals coach Marvin Lewis,” according to a tweet from Tom Pelissero. “Pierce brought in Lewis — who coached him in Washington — to help him after getting the interim job. Now Lewis is expected to be on staff in a more formal capacity.” 

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Marvin Lewis compiled a 131-122-3 record in sixteen seasons as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. That run included five consecutive trips to the postseason, the most in Cincinnati Bengals history. Before that, Lewis served as defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens for six years, including during the 2000 season, when the Ravens gave up just 23 points in four postseason games en route to a Super Bowl title.

One would assume that Antonio Pierce would make it a priority to have some assistants on his staff who have head coaching experience, given the fact that he's still learning the ins and outs of the job on the fly. But in a short period of time, Pierce proved he could get a team to play hard for him on a consistent basis, and in fairness, it seems like that's half the job right there.