The Las Vegas Raiders have made a request to interview New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for their head coach opening.
A person familiar with the search said Thursday the Raiders made the request to speak with McDaniels about filling the void left when Jon Gruden resigned in October. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team was not announcing its candidates.
McDaniels is the fourth known candidate for the position. Interim coach Rich Bisaccia interviewed for the full-time role last week, and Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and Patriots defensive assistant Jerod Mayo interviewed with owner Mark Davis this week.
McDaniels is the first of those candidates with an offensive background, having been coordinator for New England for 14 seasons and the St. Louis Rams for one. McDaniels also had an unsuccessful head coaching tenure in Denver from 2009-10 and pulled out of the job in Indianapolis immediately after being hired in 2018 to return to the Patriots.
McDaniels is viewed as one of the brighter offensive minds in the game with his many years working with Tom Brady on the Patriots and his work this season helping to develop rookie Mac Jones.
But his first experience as head coach fell apart quickly following a 6-0 start in 2009 after he traded away quarterback Jay Cutler in one of his first moves. Denver finished 8-8 that season and McDaniels was fired with a 3-9 record in 2010, losing 17 of his final 22 games as coach.
McDaniels was also fined $50,000 by the NFL for not reporting that the team’s director of video operations videotaped a San Francisco 49ers walkthrough practice before the teams played a game in 2010 in London. The investigation determined that McDaniels did not know about the taping in advance and declined to view it but he was punished for not immediately reporting the infraction to the league.
While several former assistants to Bill Belichick in New England have gotten head coaching jobs, the success rate of those coaches isn’t high.
The seven coaches — McDaniels, Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Bill O’Brien, Matt Patricia, Brian Flores and Joe Judge — have combined for a .410 winning percentage and five playoff berths in 27 seasons they began as head coach. O’Brien had four of those playoff seasons in Houston with Mangini having the other with the Jets.
The Raiders are seeking a full-time coach after Gruden was forced to resign following the release of old offensive emails he wrote.
Bisaccia led the Raiders to a 7-5 record in the regular season and their second playoff berth in 19 years before losing in the wild-card round to the Bengals.
Davis is also seeking a new general manager after firing Mike Mayock last week after three seasons.
Davis has interviewed several candidates for that job so far, including Patriots director of player personnel Dave Ziegler, Colts assistant general manager Ed Dodds, Bears assistant director of player personnel Champ Kelly, Bengals scout Trey Brown and Raiders director of pro personnel Dwayne Joseph.
Both Ziegler and Kelly have ties to McDaniels. Kelly worked with him in Denver.
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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report
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