Graney: Raiders’ next coach should be 1 of these 2 names

Pete Carroll might be a good choice as coach of the Raiders because then one mini-hoop in the locker room would become 20.

Plus, he just might rip off his shirt and challenge Davante Adams to a little one-on-one while each smoked a cigar.

Prime Time television stuff.

But you don’t hire a guy for such reasons, no matter how much he’s 72 going on 52. No matter how much energy he has compared to folks far younger.

I watch Carroll on the sidelines and need a nap.

Bill Belichick at 71 doesn’t have such liveliness to his first step (or second or third), but that might be because he’s weighted down by six Super Bowl rings. Still, the Raiders have already gone all-in on a Patriots West theme. It failed miserably.

Mike Vrabel sent waves of surprise throughout the NFL when let go by Tennessee this week. He’s also a defensive-minded coach and the Raiders are fairly set in that area.

Harbaugh or Pierce

Mark Davis should stay with a fairly simple approach when pursuing the owner’s next coach: Wait until a final decision would come from Jim Harbaugh about the Raiders. If it’s a hard pass, remove the interim tag from Antonio Pierce’s title.

I would actually do so before then.

There should be a decision to make between the two.

Harbaugh won his national championship for Michigan on Monday night and seemingly now would have his pick of NFL jobs, even with some of the high-profile coaches that became available the last 48 hours. He should be that coveted.

You got the feeling by watching Carroll’s final press conference in Seattle that he still wants to coach. You know Belichick — within shouting distance of Don Shula’s record for all-time wins — does. Vrabel should have a job before the hiring cycle concludes.

But that doesn’t mean the Raiders should be jumping at them.

His accomplishments dot the pages of NFL history as its greatest coach, but you can’t deny Belichick hasn’t produced much of anything since Tom Brady departed. The Patriots haven’t won a playoff game in five years and have missed the postseason three times in that span.

Carroll has a Super Bowl ring and yet Seattle won one playoff game the last seven years. The Seahawks are not close to what they once were defensively under him.

Tennessee, after jettisoning Vrabel, requested permission to speak with Pierce about its coaching vacancy. How serious the Titans are about him is unknown. But it certainly brings into focus the more-than-admirable job Pierce did over the last nine games of the season since replacing the fired Josh McDaniels.

Pierce is unconventional. Doesn’t do everything by the coach’s official handbook. Prides himself on it. So do those players who have vehemently campaigned for him to get the full-time job.

Ones like star edge rusher Maxx Crosby, who tweeted Friday: “#HireAP”.

Or cornerback Jack Jones, who quote tweeted Crosby with the word “TODAY”.

Pierce knows what buttons to push. What makes each player tick. He knows how to motivate others. All important traits for a coach.

Big names available

“Every team is different, every player is different, every coaching staff is different,” Pierce said. “It’s kind of like the weather — whatever works and what’s going to be right, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do what’s right.

“I understand that football is done this way, and everybody interviews this way, and they present this way, and they talk that way and they look this way. But there’s a lot of different ways to skin a cat. You don’t have to be the cookie cutter, and I’m not going to be. If I’m staying here, that’s not going to be me. And I don’t want our players or our staff to be like that.”

Lots of big names became available this week. Lots of great resumes.

But if the course is Harbaugh or Pierce, it’s one Davis wouldn’t regret.

And not necessarily in that order.

Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.