Former Stanford head coach could be a good fit for the head coach position at Las Vegas Raiders.
The Raiders may return to their roots in Northern California while they search for a full-time head coach to succeed Josh McDaniels, who was fired recently.
A throwback to the past would also be exciting. A name to keep an eye on for the opening is former Stanford head coach David Shaw, according to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Although Antonio Pierce, the interim head coach, still has a chance to get the permanent position, other names are being mentioned in relation to the possible vacancy.
The 51-year-old Shaw’s name seems to come out of nowhere.
Before being elevated to the position of quarterbacks coach in 2001, he worked as the Raiders’ offensive quality control coach from 1999 to 2000.
Shaw eventually followed Jim Harbaugh into college, working as the offensive coordinator for Stanford from 2007 to 2010 after joining San Diego in 2006. Shaw became the head coach of the Cardinals after Harbaugh left to take a position as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 2011.
Shaw’s name has previously been mentioned as a possible candidate for NFL head coach. He did, after all, have some success in his role as head coach of Stanford from 2011 to 2022.
Stanford’s record under David Shaw: 96–54, eight trips to the bowl, five victories
Shaw played for Palo Alto for six seasons, compiling a 64-17 record and two Rose Bowl victories. It was only then that he was 32-37.
With an interim coach, the Las Vegas Raiders managed to qualify for the playoffs in 2021 despite going through more in a single season than most teams do in ten. Josh McDaniels, the head coach of the Raiders, has shown after two years in the league that he is not deserving of another opportunity.
Rather than re-creating the so-called Patriot Way, McDaniels managed a team that lacked discipline and had one of the league’s worst offenses. Even though he was fired in 2022, this move was required due to McDaniels’ actions this season and the decline of the on-field performance.
Teams in the NFL are constantly searching for the next Mike McDaniel, Sean McVay, or Kyle Shanahan. Of course, there are scores of individuals who prove to be unfit for head coach in the NFL for every offensive mastermind and play-calling wizard who succeeds in the role. Josh McDaniels is one outstanding illustration of that.
Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, has only that one flaw. Just in 2019, he served as an offensive quality control coach; he didn’t begin calling plays until much later in the 2021 campaign. However, Johnson’s success in his final two years leading the Lions’ offense is virtually unrivaled.
Jared Goff was considered more of an offensive anchor than a touchdown-scoring quarterback when Detroit acquired him in the Matthew Stafford trade. Goff has spent the last two seasons as one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks with Johnson.
With a 40-11 TD-INT record and a 98.8 QB rating in his last 24 games, Goff has completed 66% of his passes for an average of 7.52 yards per attempt. Let’s contrast that with a few of the NFL quarterbacks who have been recognized as MVP candidates since the 2022 season began.
