3 Las Vegas Raiders who should follow Antonio Pierce out the door after insulting firing

When the 2024 NFL regular season came to an end, there were reasons to believe that the Las Vegas Raiders were going to fire Antonio Pierce. Not only did he appear to be very unqualified in his first full season as the man in charge, but the team went 4-13. The Raiders had their worst season record-wise in a decade. Expectations weren't very high, but they were higher than that.

Once Black Monday rolled around, signs pointed to the Raiders keeping Pierce around. The Raiders didn't fire him instantly like most teams do with the head coaches they want to fire the day after the season ends, and Pierce even spoke to the media, expressing his belief that he would stick around. That did not happen, as the Raiders let him go just one day after his end-of-season presser.

An argument can easily be made that Pierce should've been fired, but the Raiders did not handle that situation well at all.

With all of that being said, Pierce is far from the only member of the Raiders who won't be back with the team in 2025. These three players will follow him out of the door.

3) The Raiders need to move on from Gardner Minshew one way or another

The Raiders saw Gardner Minshew nearly lead the Indianapolis Colts to the playoffs and opted to sign him as a free agent last offseason, inking the 28-year-old on a two-year deal worth $25 million. While Minshew didn't have a lengthy track record of success as a starter by any means, it felt as if there were worse stop-gap options for them to consider. In hindsight, Minshew was never the right player for the Raiders to pursue, especially on that contract.

Minshew out-dueled Aidan O'Connell in the team's quarterback competition, earning the nod under center at the start of the regular season, but he struggled in the starting role. Minshew would go 2-7 in his nine starts and throw more interceptions (10) than touchdowns (9). O'Connell didn't light the world on fire in Minshew's place, but he certainly looked better, and is under cheap club control for another two years.

The Raiders need to find a way to add a quarterback, whether that comes in the draft, in a trade, or in free agency, to their quarterback room. Assuming they do, Minshew is probably the odd man out. The Raiders have an out in his contract where they can release him and save some of the money on his contract, or, in a weak offseason QB market, they could look to trade him to a desperate team.

2) The Raiders have no need to roster Harrison Bryant anymore

The Raiders made an interesting decision to draft Brock Bowers in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, one year after taking Michael Mayer, another tight end, in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

That draft pick cannot be judged harshly at all, as Bowers just wrapped up one of the better offensive seasons a rookie skill position player has ever had. Knowing that Bowers is going to take virtually all of the tight end work and that the Raiders still have Mayer, what's the point of rostering Harrison Bryant?

Bryant played in 13 games for the Raiders but was on the field in just 25 percent of the team's offensive snaps in the games that he appeared in, and finished his season with nine receptions for 86 yards. Bryant might be good enough to be a backup tight end elsewhere, but with Bowers and Mayer in the mix, the Raiders don't have a need to bring Bryant back.

1) It won't be hard for the Raiders to find an upgrade over Alexander Mattison

A lot went wrong for the Raiders this past season, obviously, but the team's biggest weakness was almost certainly its rushing attack. It was non-existent. The Raiders ranked dead last in the NFL, averaging just 79.8 rushing yards per game. That was 12 yards per game shy of the next-worst team.

Alexander Mattison was the team's leading rusher, but that doesn't mean much. He rushed for 420 yards on 132 attempts in the 14 games he appeared in, averaging a measly 3.2 yards per carry. He did rack up a career-high 294 receiving yards, but his primary job is to run the ball, and Mattison could not have been much less efficient.

Mattison was, at one point in time, a solid backup running back for the Minnesota Vikings, but when he's gotten chances to start games in each of the last two seasons, he's struggled. Nobody in this Las Vegas running back room is the solution in 2025 or beyond. The Raiders ought to let Mattison walk and replace him with someone who can help lead this backfield for a long time.