Raiders Rumors: Josh McDaniels, Dave Ziegler, Assistant Coach Firings to Cost $85M

Money doesn't appear to be an obstacle or deterrent for Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis.

But his latest decision to fire coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler will reportedly be a costly one with Davis set back about $85 million, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Schefter also reported that some of the cost will be offset by mitigation and other factors but that once source told him that the firings would be "an expensive move nonetheless."

Hired back in January of 2022 following a very successful, decade-long stint as the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, McDaniels still had four years of fully guaranteed money remaining on his Raiders' contract.

The deal paid him approximately $10 million per season and now Davis will have to eat all of that.

Davis will also have to deal with the cost of reworking the contracts of interim head coach Antonio Pierce and interim GM Champ Kelly.

However, sources told Schefter that Davis cares more about building a winning organization at the moment than he does about the money he needs to spend to get the Raiders to that point.

"Unfortunately, I had great hopes for Josh and Dave," Davis said Wednesday. ""It just seemed we were going in the wrong direction. So, with the trade deadline, I just felt it was time to make a change, time to make a move."

Vegas certainly hasn't had a winning culture in a very long time, regardless of how much money Davis has spent since taking over.

Pierce will become the 12th different person to coach for the Raiders over the past 20 seasons—the most of any team over that span. He'll be the eighth coach to work under Davis.

As a result of that instability, the organization hasn't won a division title since 2002—tied for the third-longest drought in the league.