Both of those wins came against AFC West opponents in the Los Angeles Chargers at home and on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs. That win against the reigning AFC West champion further boosted the morale in the locker and momentum among the players to see Pierce get the permanent job when the season ends.
At 7-9, the Raiders aren’t in contention for the postseason, but Adams’ point is the franchise has someone in-house the players are completely behind. The former New York Giants linebacker brought a championship pedigree with him as a Super Bowl XLII champion before joining Las Vegas and ascending from his post as the linebackers coach.
Pierce has often touted how he’s a player’s coach, and Adams backed that self-assessment up in his Wednesday remarks.
“He has a realistic approach and mindset of how the game is supposed to be played and what he expects from his players and it’s easy to get behind that,” Adams said.
With one more game remaining against the Denver Broncos, Pierce has one more chance to add to his résumé “on the grass.”
“My résumé is on the grass,” Pierce told reporters last week via USA Today. “What do you want? I can put up a fancy presentation, I’ve seen that before. I can put up stats, I can put up my résumé, but the best thing that happened for me was an opportunity. … The worst day I was going to be as a head coach was my first day.
“[That’s] no different than when I was a player. And by the end, you look at it — whatever your career was and whatever my coaching career is — and you sit there and say, ‘Look, this is what he was.’ And hopefully [Raiders owner] Mark Davis sees improvement and growth within our team, he sees the style and play that he wants from the Raiders, he sees a fan base that’s behind us, he sees a building that loves coming to work and loves being here. … And at the end of the day, we’ve got to win.”
