Antonio Pierce calls Raiders ‘worst team in football’

It seems to be universally accepted that the Raiders are not good this season, but head coach Antonio Pierce called them “the worst team in football” during a press conference.

At 2-9, the Raiders are tied with the Giants and Jaguars for the worst record in the NFL, so it’s not much of a surprise to hear Vegas referred to as the worst team.

What is surprising is when it comes from the team’s own head coach.

Pierce discussed trying to change the narrative of the team ahead of their Black Friday game against the Chiefs on Prime Video.

“Let’s call a spade a spade, the best team in football against the worst team in football,” Pierce said Wednesday. “Let’s change the narrative. Let’s go out there and make it a dogfight, let’s make it ugly, let’s make it scrappy.

“It’s Black Friday, let’s create some chaos, let’s get back to Raider football and have some fun and some personality. Let it loose.”

The Raiders will have a tall task trying to topple the 10-1 Chiefs the day after Thanksgiving.

They will have Aidan O’Connell under center for Friday’s game, his return coming in the interim after Gardner Minshew went down for the rest of the season with a broken collarbone.

“We’re fine with Aidan. He’s been called in,” Pierce said, per Pro Football Talk. “It is clear that during all this time he has been on IR, he has been in all the meetings; he has been very encouraging on the sidelines. He has that laser eye focus right now. Great opportunity for him.”

O’Connell had usurped Minshew for the starting job in Week 6, but he went down with a broken thumb in Week 7.

“He carried himself like a starter. He carried himself like a starter even when he was on IR. He did when he was the backup,” Pierce said. “He did a great job of being engaged with the players, engaged on the sidelines, in meeting rooms. He’s the talker, the talker. You can just look at his eyes; you look at his demeanor.”