The Raiders are sticking with Antonio Pierce after he went 5-4 as their interim head coach this season, but they opted to go in a different direction at General Manager.
Interim G.M. Champ Kelly was a candidate for the permanent position, but former Chargers G.M. Tom Telesco wound up being hired this week. Raiders owner Mark Davis said he “always felt that the Chargers had a scary type of roster” when Telesco was running their personnel department and that Telesco’s experience in the job provided the kind of balance he wanted with a first-time head coach.
“He’s got experience, and that was really important at this point. That was huge,” Davis told Vic Tafur of TheAthletic.com.
Former Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis and former Giants head coach Tom Coughlin provide more experience as advisors to Pierce and the Raiders will be hoping that the group can help make Pierce’s strong start a sustained run of success.