The Las Vegas Raiders have hired GM Tom Telesco, which means more of the same for Raider fans.
Las Vegas Raiders fans, who have remained with the team through many locations and a lot of awful football, are among the most devoted in all of football. They deserve greater success than they’ve had.
However, the hiring of new general manager Tom Telesco is expected to result in more of the same for the organization, which has not won a playoff game in 21 years.
Telesco will succeed David Zeigler, who was sacked in November alongside Head Coach Josh McDaniels. The Raiders have elected to maintain interim head coach Antonio Pierce as head coach, which I believe is a fantastic decision.
However, Telesco isn’t the solution to the Raiders’ problems. He spent the previous eleven seasons with the Chargers organization as their general manager, and the results aren’t nice. For the most of those seasons, he got solid quarterback play from Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert. During his period, the team only won two playoff games and advanced to the postseason three times in his eleven seasons.
Yes, he accumulated talent in San Diego/Los Angeles, but it never translated into the expected results on the field given his quarterback play.
The Chargers have always been an unlucky franchise, and there was a lot of that present in his era. But he frequently failed at the most critical aspect of being a general manager: choosing a head coach. Even if you excuse him for hiring Mike McCoy a few days after Telesco, he still hired two head coaches during his time. Both Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley were massive failures who underperformed for the franchise. Yes, the Raiders did make that hire.
The one thing Raiders fans should be happy about is the first-round selection. Telesco has had a lot of hits in the first round, including Jason Verrett, Joey Bosa, Rashawn Slater, Justin Herbert, Derwin James, and Mike Williams. However, it appears that he has failed after the first round, resulting in Chargers teams with a lot of star power but often large voids and a lack of depth.
He’s also made some terrible free agent signings. Most recently, cornerback JC Jackson received a large salary from Telesco but only played seven games for the team before being dealt back to the New England Patriots.
I believe the Raiders could have done much better here, and there is no reason to believe that the 51-year-old Telesco will be the one to turn things around for a franchise that is in desperate need of postseason wins, trailing only Miami in the league.
