Tennessee Titans request to interview Las Vegas Raiders interim HC Antonio Pierce for vacant job

The Las Vegas Raiders are currently wrestling with the idea of giving Antonio Pierce their head coaching gig for good, but they may not be alone in that thought.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Tennessee Titans have requested permission to interview Pierce for their job, which was opened on Tuesday when the team fired Mike Vrabel.

“The #Titans have requested to interview #Raiders interim coach Antonio Pierce for their vacant head coaching job, source said. Las Vegas may have some competition,” Rapoport posted on X.

Ironically, perhaps this could swing the Raiders’ job in Pierce’s favor. If Las Vegas was looking for a sign to take the interim label off of Pierce’s title, perhaps interest from other teams could be the reason why.

Pierce bursted onto the scene after the firing of Josh McDaniels, and the Raiders may have stumbled into finding their head coach of the future. Owner Mark Davis made the mistake of letting interim Rich Bisaccia walk after he steadied the ship following Jon Gruden’s dismissal, does he really want to make the same mistake twice?

If he does, a team like the Tennessee Titans could potentially swoop in, or even Antonio Pierce’s old team in the New York Giants, whose defensive coordinator position officially opened up on Wednesday. All eyes are on what Las Vegas and Mark Davis decide.

More on Tennessee Titans, firing of Mike Vrabel

Continuing, Mike Vrabel was fired after leading the Titans to a 6-11 record this past season. Tennessee went 7-10 in 2022, as well.

Vrabel was named the head coach of the Titans in January of 2018 and led Tennessee for six seasons, before being fired on Tuesday. Tennessee went 9-7 in each of his first two seasons, reaching the AFC Championship Game in 2019.

In 2020, the Titans went 11-5, before losing in the first round of the playoffs. In 2021, Tennessee entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the AFC after winning 12 regular season games, before falling at home to the Bengals in the playoffs. The Titans had losing records each of the past two seasons, leading to Vrabel’s dismissal. 

It will be interesting to see where Vrabel ends up next. He is likely to have plenty of suitors as he led Tennessee to the playoffs three straight years from 2019-2021, even if the Titans didn’t have success there.

Prior to getting into coaching, Vrabel won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and is in the Patriots Hall of Fame. He played college football at Ohio State where he was twice named a first-team All-American.

Vrabel started his coaching career with the Buckeyes, before eventually transitioning to the NFL and then getting the Titans head coaching job.