Josh McDaniels' second head coaching stint is going rather poorly, so much so that the calls for his job are only growing louder with each week.
Raiders owner Mark Davis is ignoring those calls, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this week he believed McDaniels, owner of a 2-7 record after 10 weeks, is "doing a fantastic job."
McDaniels is thankful for the support from his team's owner.
"I appreciate Mark's support -- I've always appreciated it," McDaniels said Wednesday. "I've said that a number of times. We're all here because of him and we all want to do right by him. I think that we knew when we came here that this is a longer-term view of, how do we get this thing to repeat? And that hasn't happened here in a little while.
"Again, the immediate results that we've gotten so far, they aren't what everybody's hoping for or wanting. But I think we're also trying to keep an eye on a lot of things that would go into, how do you sustain it once you get it? It's not easy to get, but once you get it, how do you sustain it? And that's not easy either."
Davis didn't just hire a hot name among coaching candidates when he signed McDaniels -- he committed to the Patriot Way, bringing over Patriots executive Dave Ziegler and installing him as the team's new general manager. It's not a pairing on which Davis is going to simply give up after less than one full season.
To that effort, though, McDaniels was sure to make it clear he wasn't trying to make Las Vegas into New England West.
"We're going to try to do it the best way for us, here. We're not trying to copy everything that Dave and I have been a part of," McDaniels said. "We're trying to do some of it, but also taking a lot of input from other people and figure out what works best for us.
"We want to win every time we step on the field. That's what we're trying to do. But I do have some understanding of the type of patience we may need in order to ultimately get to where we're trying to go."
The biggest problem with stressing patience is the current state of the Raiders, a team that acquired Davante Adams for a hefty sum that included high-value draft capital and a lucrative extension. With Derek Carr on the roster and Chandler Jones joining the squad in the offseason, the expectation was to win now in an AFC West that appeared loaded on paper.
Instead, the Raiders have lost in every fashion imaginable, blowing multiple leads and getting shut out by a Saints team that is spinning its own wheels at this point in the season.
Still, Davis isn't considering moving on from McDaniels, going beyond the dreaded vote of confidence by telling one media outlet he sees nothing wrong with his coach's performance, even as his team founders.
"He's been great to us and I appreciate his support," McDaniels said. "He's continued to try and give us anything we need or ask for to try to help us be successful. I appreciate his long-term view on it, too. I really do."
The negative response to Las Vegas' performance isn't going to die down any time soon, barring an unforeseen turnaround. As is often said, Rome wasn't built in a day. But the Raiders seem to have much more work ahead of them that might stretch well beyond roster management.
