Silver And Black Pride
Norv Turner join his son in Las Vegas as senior advisor
The time for speculation is over.
Head coach Antonio Pierce made his decision on who will be his Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator and offensive line coach: Scott Turner and Joe Philbin, respectively. The pair are now the interim play caller and trench teacher the team announced on Tuesday.
The restructuring of the coaching staff is a result of Pierce dismissing former offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, offensive line coach James Cregg, and quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello late Sunday night — after the team’s 41-24 Week 9 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
The moves allow Turner and Philbin to absorb the roles and the bye week gives the duo ample time to get settled.
The key question with Turner and Philbin: Can the new lead offensive coaches shore up the Raiders’ inefficiencies and miscues?
While Pierce has no choice but to find out, don’t set expectations too high for either Turner or Philbin.
Let’s start with the obvious: Both Turner and Philbin were already on staff and have a hand in Las Vegas’ 2-7 overall record. Turner was the pass game coordinator while Philbin as a senior offensive assistant before landing their new roles. Pierce could’ve just easily made the pair the respective offensive coordinator and offensive line coach long before he tabbed Getsy and Cregg to do those same jobs.
The Raiders lack of offensive success is well documented and the bar is low for the new interim play caller and trench boss — Las Vegas boasts the 26th-ranked scoring offense at 18.7 points per game (168 total) and the dead-last ground game (a meager 692 yards rushing) — just how much Turner and Philbin move the needle is debatable.
Take Turner, for example.
His last stint orchestrating an offense was for the Washington Football Team (eventually Washington Commanders) from 2020-22. In his final season as offensive coordinator, Washington finished with 18.9 points per game (321 total). The previous season, Turner’s offense finished 23rd scoring 19.7 points per game (335) total and in his first season with the play book in 2020, Washington was 25th scoring at a 20.9 per game clip (335 total).
A lot was said about Turner lacking quality personnel at his disposal during his tenure in Washington, when referring to overall league rankings, but now he takes over play calling duties for a Las Vegas squad which has talent at certain spots, but is undoubtedly in shambles due to injury which has exposed the lack of quality depth. Just look at the quarterback position for starters.
Gardner Minshew was benched — again — during the blowout to the Bengals. And Desmond Ridder, who replaced Minshew this past Sunday, was signed off the Atlanta Falcons practice squad after Aidan O’Connell was placed on injured reserve after suffering a broken thumb on his throwing hand against the Los Angeles Rams three weeks ago.
Philbin, on the other hand, takes control of an offensive line that’s had its...
