BACK TOGETHER AGAIN;
McDANIELS AND ZIEGLER
The ability to evolve and adapt is quite possibly the most exciting attribute Head Coach Josh McDaniels brings to Las Vegas. The former Patriots offensive coordinator has had an extensive amount of time coaching under some of the most successful coaches in football history. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Nick Saban at Michigan State. After a 10-2 record and a Citrus Bowl victory, he moved on to the NFL as personnel assistant under Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots. In McDaniels' first season with the Patriots franchise, they defeated the St. Louis Rams 20-17 in Super Bowl XXXVI. Along the way, he helped the team to five more Super Bowls over two stints in New England as he made the upward progression from assistant to offensive coordinator – working hand and hand with the NFL's career passing yards and touchdowns leader Tom Brady. McDaniels, 45, has awaited an opportunity to once again be a NFL head coach since his 2010 stint with the Denver Broncos, and he believes this is the perfect opportunity to again fulfill that role. "I've been patient," McDaniels said in his introductory press conference in January. "I've been selective, maybe to a fault sometimes. People wanted me to do things a little earlier than maybe I did them, but it was going to take a special place for me to really leave where I was, and I found that here in Las Vegas." General Manager Dave Ziegler joined McDaniels from the Patriots, where he was previously their director of player personnel. Ziegler has known McDaniels for nearly 30 years, dating back to playing together at John Carroll University – a Division III football program in University Heights, Ohio. Ziegler was a guidance counselor and football coach at a Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, before McDaniels brought him onto his staff with the Denver Broncos as a scout, and the two continued to work with each other in New England, winning three Super Bowls together in their nine seasons together there. "I know Josh and I's relationship goes back a long time," said Ziegler. "And our relationship has always been built on honesty and respect, and the ability to be each other's biggest teammate and the ability to be each other's critic too. To always come back to a place of respect and always come back to a place where we're on the same page. I think that's been the real beauty of our relationship as we've developed and as we've kind of advanced in our respective positions in the league." Both McDaniels and Ziegler noted that the choice to join the Silver and Black was an easy one based on the history of the organization and aligned values between themselves and the Raiders. "To me, walking through this building and having a sense of the history and tradition of this organization and how much that impacts the day to day here, it really hit me," McDaniels said. "This is one of those iconic places. It's a historic organization that has unbelievable history and tradition. It's in every hallway." "The stadium, the facilities, the weight room, the training room, the locker room, I could go on and on," Ziegler added. "It harkens back to a phrase made famous by the late Al Davis, there really is a commitment to excellence when you walk into this building and when you walk into the stadium." Bringing in a head coach/general manager duo that was familiar with each other was a bonus for Owner Mark Davis when deciding who would lead the Raiders’ roster next. "I felt in this time, we were going to do it a little bit differently and try to find a teammate," Davis said back in January. "Therefore in every interview that we did with a head coach, we asked [the candidate] who he would think of as a general manager or general managers, and on the other side of the coin we asked that to every general manager [candidate], as well, who would you think of as a head coach. It was such an expanding, learning process hearing about all those things, but we felt that it was really important for them to have synergy. "I couldn't have found a better pair of people working together from John Carroll University than these two gentlemen."
Las Vegas Raiders 2022
82
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online