On Jan. 17, the Raiders requested interviews with three General Manager candidates before the team announced Mike Mayock was fired from the position. When the Raiders didn’t retain interim coach Rich Bisaccia, Mayock’s future presumably was decided.
Mayock had a strong belief the Raiders should promote Bisaccia, previously the special teams coach, to the full-time head coaching job. Mayock fought for Bisaccia to owner Mark Davis several times, including the day after the postseason loss to the Bengals, Paul Domowitch of the33rdteam.com reports.
Bisaccia got an interview. He didn’t get the job.
“The two (special teams) guys I pushed for for years to be head coaches were John Harbaugh and Richie Bisaccia,” Mayock told Domowitch. “I thought both of them would be special head coaches. To the point where I recommended both of them to Boston College, a school near and dear to my heart, back in 2007. Harbs interviewed for the job and didn’t get it. The following year he got the Ravens job and is one of the best coaches in the league.
“In my mind, I felt Richie had earned (the opportunity to be the team’s head coach). I thought we worked incredibly well together. I think the way we looked at the situation was, we got this thing going the right way. We built a strong foundation. We had one of the youngest rosters in the league. Our salary cap situation was outstanding. We felt like we had the right kind of people in the building and the foundation was built. Now let’s continue to build on it. The bottom line was we were both pretty excited about the future there. Obviously, that’s not what happened.’’
According to Domowitch, Davis “never was sold” on Bisaccia and the owner “pretty much” made up his mind to move on when the Raiders were 6-7. The Raiders rallied, went 10-7 and made the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Raiders players publicly campaigned for Bisaccia, while Mayock was doing the same behind the scenes. It likely is what cost Mayock his first G.M. job.
The Raiders turned to the Patriots organization to hire Dave Ziegler as G.M. and Josh McDaniels as head coach. Bisaccia moved on to the Green Bay, returning to being a special teams coordinator, and Mayock remains without a job.