Raiders’ new power duo is being tasked with building on its Super Bowl legacy—in Las Vegas

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Seated behind a display of his franchise’s three Lombardi trophies, Raiders owner Mark Davis mentioned “Super Bowl” within a minute of introducing his hires to fill the team’s head-coaching and general manager vacancies on January 31.

Davis also closed out the 44-minute news conference by talking about the same thing, so the expectations for new general manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels are both crystal-clear and sky-high. Davis isn’t bringing in two contributors to the New England Patriots’ dynasty for a rebuild, as some analysts suggested and many fans feared.

“It’s just taking this to the next level and getting to that Super Bowl and winning some championships,” Davis said.

McDaniels and Ziegler have proven they’re championship-caliber, at least in the framework of the Patriots’ organization. McDaniels served as a coach for all six New England Super Bowl-winning teams over the past two decades, the most recent three as offensive coordinator. Ziegler earned three rings as a personnel executive.

To repeat such success in Las Vegas, that duo will need to step from a pair of long shadows.

McDaniels must prove he can thrive without Tom Brady. The offenses McDaniels has headed that didn’t include the player widely considered to be the best quarterback of all-time—including during a two-year stint as a head coach in Denver in 2009 and 2010—have been collectively mediocre.

Ziegler must prove he can thrive without Bill Belichick. Ziegler has been considered a rising star among NFL front-office types in the past couple of years, but he never held final personnel say over the legendary coach while with the Patriots.

“Bill is a forward-thinker,” Ziegler said when asked how Belichick shaped him. “It’s not just about a decision in the moment, it’s about how a decision can impact what we’re going to do in 2022, in 2023, and just to really have an understanding of how decisions can impact different parts of the organization.”

No one is underestimating the importance of the biggest decision Ziegler and McDaniels will need to make in the coming months. The two will need to decide what to do with quarterback Derek Carr, who’s entering the final year of his contract and will likely either need to be extended or traded.

Carr has spent the past eight years as the Raiders’ quarterback and holds most of the franchise’s passing records, but he has never won a playoff game. The new staff could make it easier to move on, especially in an offseason that looks like it will have more league-wide quarterback turnover than usual.

Superstars Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson could both be on new teams for the first time in their careers, for instance, and both reportedly expressed interest in Las Vegas last offseason.

McDaniels gave Carr a vow of confidence, saying, “There’s no question that we have the capacity and capability of winning with Derek,” but Ziegler was noncommittal when asked about long-term plans at the game’s most important position.

“Step one is building the relationship, understanding what Derek does well and Derek understanding what Josh and the offensive staff is trying to build,” Ziegler said. “I think as that collaboration goes, then you kind of see how everything fits together.”

There’s little doubt that Ziegler and McDaniels fit together. They’ve been close since their days as college roommates at John Carroll University in Northeast Ohio in the mid-1990s. Ziegler was the first general manager the Raiders interviewed, and Davis remembered asking him who would be his ideal head coach.

When Ziegler answered with McDaniels’ name, Davis said he wasn’t aware he was available. “He will be if I come here,” Ziegler said in a response that piqued Davis’ interest.

McDaniels, by his own admission, has been highly selective with the jobs he has considered, so the Raiders might have been a curious choice on the surface. Although they made the playoffs last year, it has been 20 years since they won so much as a divisional title.

Being asked to step in and compete for Super Bowls right away might have been a turnoff to some candidates, but McDaniels and Ziegler seem confident enough in their previous experiences to believe they can do it again somewhere else.

“Their commitment to winning is easy to feel, to see, and walking through this building and having a sense of the history and tradition of this organization and how much it impacts the day-to-day here really hit me,” McDaniels said. “Feeling their commitment and understanding that really married up to what my vision would be for another opportunity.”