‘Synergy’ between McDaniels, Ziegler was major selling point for Raiders

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Jan. 31, 2022 | 6 p.m.

Raiders owner Mark Davis and his search committee held 12 total interviews with head-coach and general-manager candidates over the past two weeks.

There was one question that they made sure to ask in every session. For coaches, it was, “who would you pick as the general manger,” and for general managers, it was, “who would you pick as the coach?”

In Davis’ first general manager interview, Patriots director of player personnel Dave Ziegler was adamant on Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. In Davis’ final head coach interview, McDaniels was adamant on Ziegler.

The conviction they both spoke with regarding each other played no small role in their eventual appointments to the two foremost football positions of power within the Raiders’ franchise. Davis appropriately introduced the 45-year-old McDaniels and the 44-year-old Ziegler in a joint news conference Monday afternoon at the Raiders’ team facility in Henderson as the team’s new coach and general manager, respectively.

“I felt this time we were going to do it really differently and find a teammate,” Davis explained. “We felt it was really important for them to have synergy. I couldn’t have found a better pair of people.”  

Davis is tasking McDaniels and Ziegler with taking the Raiders “to the next level” after they reached the playoff this season as he made it clear there wouldn’t be a rebuild with the new regime. To do it, the pair can draw upon nearly 25 years of experience working with each other.

The two were roommates in college at John Carroll University in the mid-to-late 1990s and then worked together both with the Patriots and the Denver Broncos. The Raiders’ hierarchy will be set up in a traditional manner with Ziegler holding final personnel say and McDaniels in charge of the product on the field, but they’ll have a large amount of collaboration.

“We go back a long way and I have a great deal of respect for him, his ability to do the job that he’s been hired to do here, evaluate and lead our personnel and scouting department,” McDaniels said of Ziegler. “He’s a hard-worker, tireless in his effort to do anything he can to help the football team. I’m excited to join in our vision together.”

There’s a common perception that McDaniels was given too much autonomy in his first stint as a head coach, with the Broncos in 2009 and 2010 when he went a combined 11-17. He had final personnel say and acknowledged on Monday that he alienated some with his attitude.

For more than a decade since, he’s thought about how he would change if he was given another chance to be an NFL head coach.

“When I went to Denver, I knew a little bit of football,” McDaniels said. “I didn’t really know people and how important that aspect of this process is and maintaining the culture and building a team was. And I failed. I didn’t succeed at it. Looking at that experience has been one of the best things in my life in terms of my overall growth as a person as a coach.”

McDaniels has been a hot name in coaching circles for the last several seasons but stayed “selective,” in his own words, on what jobs he would even consider with as much as an interview. The Colts infamously announced McDaniels as their new coach in 2018 before he had a change of heart and returned to the Patriots.

So why was Las Vegas the “special place” he said he sought to leave New England?

“This is one of those iconic places,” McDaniels said. “It’s a historic organization that has unbelievable history and tradition and it’s in every hallway so getting to know them, feeling their commitment, and knowing that really married up with what my vision would be for another opportunity. It was easy to make the choice.”

The Raiders have fallen from their historic heights in recent times, however, as it’s now been 20 years since they won a playoff game. Davis diagnosed poor coach/general manger relationships as part of issue, at least since he took over upon his father Al Davis’ death in 2011.

Mark Davis first hired Reggie McKenzie as general manager and gave him control to hire a coach, a strategy Davis said “didn’t work out so well” in hindsight. McKenzie was eventually pushed out when coach Jon Gruden was brought aboard and given the right to make the bulk of the personnel decisions.

Recently-fired Mike Mayock was hired to be a second-in-command general manager to Gruden but Davis said their relationship was “a rocky road” even before the latter resigned midseason as a result of offensive e-mails surfacing. The dysfunction of the last decade at the top two positions shouldn’t carry into the future with as tightly aligned as Ziegler and McDaniels have been for years.

“Our relationship has always been built on honesty and respect,” Ziegler said. “The ability to be each other’s teammate and be each other’s critic too and always come back to a place of respect and come back to a place where we’re on the same page too. I think that’s been a real beauty of our relationship as we developed and we kind of advanced in our respective positions in the league.”

Davis said he had a “great” five-hour interview with Rich Bisaccia, last year’s interim coach whom the players lobbied to stay aboard but was ultimately more blown away by McDaniels.

The way McDaniels and Ziegler presented a united front in separate interviews was “the real deal,” according to Davis. Another challenge Davis’ group posed in every interview was requiring every candidate to break down the current roster.

Any hesitation he had about Ziegler or McDaniels was extinguished when they showed great familiarity and harmony with the current Raiders. As for the specifics of what the pair want to upgrade or maintain, that will have to wait.

Quarterback Derek Carr is the next major domino, as he has one year left on his current deal, but neither McDaniels nor Ziegler gave much input on their long-term plans for the eight-year veteran or any of his teammates. Whatever they decide, they’ll decide together, and that was of the utmost importance to Davis.

“It was important to me to have that person be somebody I was familiar with that understands me as a person, as a coach and I’m just fortunate that this opportunity was presented to us,” McDaniels said. “We don’t have to teach one another the language, the scouting system, the things we’re looking for in players’ qualities and traits we covet. We already understand those.”

“I think it’s a huge plus for us and the organization that we have the opportunity to hit the ground running.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or