Vikings fan here, don’t follow the Raiders too closely.
I’ve been reading threads about Josh McDaniels for a while now and most threads are just piling on, not really mentioning specifically why he was a bad coach.
I decided to pull up a post game victory speech on YouTube and he just doesn’t seem that likable of a guy. I think being likable is a big part of being a coach, because players have to want to win for you.
Does that sum up why he was a bad coach? Or is there even more to it than that?
To be fair, the team didn’t underperform that badly this year. If you look at the schedule, the only terrible game was the Bears game. Other than that, they beat the teams they were supposed to beat and lost to the teams they were supposed to lose to.
So what’s the official one-paragraph summary on Josh McDaniels tenure with the Raiders and why he was bad?
Players hated playing for him - and his methods didn’t lead to winning, so it was basically a mutiny by the end
mcDaniels kept players in meetings longer and worked them harder than any team in the league… For no results. Players will buy in to hard work, but not if it doesn’t go anywhere
He is a micromanager who routinely blamed the players for not executing, rather than look at his own game plans
He is famously petty and sensitive - and fell out with a lot of players for no good reason. Just like he was an asshole to Jay Cutler and others in Denver, he immediately fell out with Carr, Waller, Renfrow and others.
His play calling is just conservative and archaic. He hates allowing players any creativity, which is why he fell out with Renfrow and Carr in particular. Carr likes to change plays at the line based on what he sees, mcDaniels hated that
Famously, in the Seattle win last year, Carr audibled into a run that Jacobs broke for a long touchdown. McDaniels was mad he changed the play, not happy we scored a TD
He’d rather lose with his own guys than win with someone elses. Hence the insistence on downgrading to Jimmy G, who he overestimated how much he’d fit in his system, despite failing a physical
Ultimately, mcDaniels sucked all the joy and life out of this team. Which is why they celebrated like you’ve never seen when he got fired.