The Las Vegas Raiders are still slogging through their search for a new head coach, and candidates are disappearing by the day. The latest to vanish was new Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady, who got a five-year deal from the Bills after completing his second interview in the last couple of days with the Raiders.
We won’t comment on what that might say about the Raiders’ search process, but there is another coaching candidate who’s apparently still alive and well, and that’s Davis Webb, who also happens to coach in the same division.
Webb is the passing game coordinator for the Denver Broncos, of course, and Broncos head coach Sean Payton indicated that he wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to see his coordinator in the same division.
"It'd be a pain in the [butt] for him," Payton said, via Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette in an article written by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk
There’s an interesting backstory here, according to Florio. Back when Sean Payton was job hunting, he was a candidate to coach the Raiders, but he was told by his old boss with the New York Giants, Bill Parcells, not to take the job. Instead he waited for his chance with the New Orleans Saints, and the rest, as they say is coaching history.
Payton has never been known to mince words when he has a strong opinion, and he has plenty of those. But it’s remarkable that he would make this comment given the presence of the Raiders in the same division, given that it’s the opposite of the usual coach-speak platitudes.
Should the Raiders be offended? Of course, but that’s not the point. Payton is talking in part about Webb having to go against coaches Jim Harbaugh and Andy Reid twice a year, not to mention his old boss in Denver. That's especially true given how many holes the Raiders have right now, not to mention the fact that they don't have a quarterback, with Webb expected to help develop Indiana Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza.
For the Raiders, the best approach would be to improve, and to start acting like a real football organization in the process. Maybe Webb gets an offer and becomes the guy to get the job done, but to date the Raiders search has been so amateurish that it’s hard to imagine any viable coaching candidate who would be eager to take the Las Vegas job.