Despite ‘Losing Raiders’ Dressing Room’, Josh McDaniels’ Leadership Approach Inspired Davante Adams With ‘Realest Advice’

The Las Raiders’ inside problems became a public spectacle when Davante Adams smashed his helmet after losing a game (26-14) to the Detroit Lions. A commentator said that all Josh McDaniels could do was “shake his head” in disappointment. From that point onwards, things went downhill for the coach. Players, the coaching staff, and other personnel seemed to hardly get along with McDaniels on any of his coaching aspects, basically “ripping” him for every decision.

They let their frustrations out for Mark Davis and his associates to hear, after which McDaniels was fired, and Antonio Pierce stepped in. But despite his reportedly crude attitude and restrictive coaching style, there was a soft and more supportive side of him that Davante Adams got to witness. The Las Vegas receiver went on The Rush with Maxx Crosby podcast and shared an interesting anecdote about Josh McDaniels, revealing a different narrative concerning the former Raiders coach.

During his locker room struggles with the team, McDaniels chose to take a different approach. Since Adams is a veteran in the league and a beloved teammate in the Raiders, McDaniels asked the receiver to “talk to the team.” Davante Adams recalled that conversation he had with the ex-HC. Adams said, “One of the things that he said to me that was like the realest and I never even had a coach stress it like the way that he did with me.”

Adams further added, “He said, you know it was a couple of things in practice or in-games where it was a couple of lows or something and he was like, ‘I need you to talk to these dudes because I can get in there and scream at them but the more that they’re worried about letting their brother down, that s*it will mean way more than you know, me getting on him or whatever.”

While McDaniels words were as real as they could get, it did not seem like the coach’s advice worked much in favor of the team as the Raiders continued to demonstrate an underwhelming performance. Adams, however, keeping aside the struggles of the team did not sideline the efforts of his former coach even after his exit and was quick to comment, “Before I say anything else, I just want to say I really appreciate Josh and Dave for bringing me here and going through what they went through in order to make this happen for me.”

Amid the exit of McDaniels, fingers point to the one main reason that remains a setback in his coaching style. The inclination of the scale seems to be continuously toward McDaniels being stuck in his Patriots’ ways of coaching, not allowing the former Raiders’ HC to move on.

McDaniels couldn’t let the past go!

McDaniels’ time with the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick has played a huge role in his coaching career, giving him the confidence to move on to take up the role of an HC. However, while this provided him a strategic edge, it also hindered his growth in the role, per reports. The Raiders, according to Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, had a grievance meeting where the players decided to “unload” on McDaniels and air out their frustration.

But it was Antonio Pierce, the then Linebackers coach, who stepped forward to offer a solution without trying to throw Josh McDaniels under the bus. To imbibe a new culture and help McDaniels out, Antonio Pierce brought up the 2007 season Super Bowl of Giants vs Patriots. Pierce was a linebacker in that Giants team playing against McDaniels’ Patriots and mentioned that the New York team wanted to win no matter who their opponent was. Pierce wanted the Raiders to have the same mentality in order to create a legacy of their own.

Apparently, per reports, McDaniels didn’t seem to like the message and took it as a disrespect to the Patriots and told Pierce not to speak about the New England like that anymore. Perhaps, the coach appeared to be stuck in his old ways, and still leading the Raiders with a potentially outdated playbook amidst his heartfelt loyalty seemingly still with the Patriots.

The meeting ended up with Ian Rapoport highlighting how the players were “passionate” during the conversation and revealed they were “very angry with McDaniels.”  Eventually, he was fired from the Las Vegas Raiders after the team had a 3-5 start to their year. Nonetheless, the recent comment from Davante Adams on his former coach does shed some relief for McDaniels after the brutal exit last year.