Antonio Pierce reveals key details about Raiders’ coordinators ahead of Week 1

Antonio Pierce reveals where his assistant coaches will be on gameday calling plays

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce earned the job last season when he took over for Josh McDaniels who was fired in early November. What Pierce showed the organization was enough to have the interim tag removed and officially hired.

This offseason, Pierce then assembled his coaching staff by hiring Luke Getsy as offensive coordinator and retaining Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator. The hope is that the coaching staff can get the best out of this team and surprise the rest of the NFL.

Ahead of Sunday’s Week 1 clash against the Los Angeles Chargers on the road, Antonio Pierce revealed a big detail about his staff. He told the media that Luke Getsy will call plays from the sideline while Graham will be up in the box during the games.

“That’s a good question. I mean, Patrick Graham’s career started on the field, and last year he made a change, and I think it was beneficial to all of us,” Pierce said on Wednesday. “Last year, when I took over, Bo [Hardegree] called a game downstairs and then we moved him upstairs, and that was beneficial. So, Luke is used to calling it downstairs, and I’m not going to change that until we need to.”

Last season, the Raiders had Graham on the sidelines before moving him to the box. It seemed to work as they still finished as one of the better defenses.

With a lot of talent on this defense, Graham will look to get the most out of it and help the Raiders’ offense along the way. A good defense can certainly make things a lot easier for an offense in the NFL and with the Raiders having some big question marks on that side of the ball, they need all the help they can get.

In his last stint with Chicago, Getsy was on the sidelines calling the plays on Matt Eberflus’ staff. So as Antonio Pierce points out, he does have the experience doing that.

But if things start to go downhill for the offense, will they move Getsy up to the box? Time will tell.

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