Week 9 winners and losers: Coaching staff put on notice with Getsy firing

After another embarrassing loss, Las Vegas parted with three coaches. Could more firings be coming?

Another week and another embarrassing loss for the Las Vegas Raiders. Heads are starting to roll in Las Vegas as the Week 9 41-24 defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals resulted in three coaches getting fired; offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello and offensive line coach James Cregg.

With the Raiders sitting at 2-7 and having not won a game since September, no coach and very few players in the building should feel safe for the rest of the season as more firings could be coming. Moving forward, that adds some extra weight to the winners and losers column as the latter category could result in unemployment.

LOSER: Coaching Staff

We’ll start with the obvious. Luke Getsy, Rich Scangarello and James Cregg were the first dominos to fall and the entire coaching staff could reasonably be on the chopping block to finish the campaign. It’s no secret that’s what happens in the NFL when you’re one of the worst teams in the league.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore indicated that the entire staff could be out of work by the time the offseason rolls around as it’s officially finger-pointing season in Vegas.

WINNER: Jackson Powers-Johnson

On a positive note, Powers-Johnson looked really sharp in his first career start at center. According to Pro Football Focus, he didn’t allow a pressure in pass protection and earned an elite 91.7 run-blocking grade. Especially given Andre James’ struggles this season, the rookie could be taking over at center moving forward.

LOSER: Thayer Munford Jr.

On the other end of the spectrum, Munford might have sealed his fate as a career-long backup. Bengals edge-rusher Trey Hendrickson set a career-high with four sacks on Sunday, the majority of which came against the third-year pro. Munford yielded three sacks and seven total pressures in Cincy to earn a 9.9 pass-protection grade from Pro Football Focus.

This was supposed to be the 2022 seventh-round pick’s breakout campaign but instead, it’s been an utter disaster. He lost his starting spot at right tackle to DJ Glaze and Andrus Peat appears to be ahead of him on the depth chart as Peat was the first tackle to come off the bench and replace an injured Kolton Miller. To make matters worse, Munford didn’t help improve his status with an abysmal performance.

WINNER: Decamerion Richardson

Photo by Ric Tapia/Getty Images

This was the first game Richardson received double-digit snaps on defense and he managed to hold his own against the Bengals’ strong receiving corps. The rookie was targeted twice and didn’t allow a reception while recording a forced incompletion to earn a solid 67.0 coverage grade, via PFF.

LOSER: Divine Deablo

Over the past few weeks, opposing offenses have been picking on the Raiders’ linebackers in coverage. The Bengals completed nine of 10 targets for 77 yards and three touchdowns against Robert Spillane and Deablo. Either player could have landed on this week’s losers list as Spillane gave up more yards (49) while Deablo yielded two scores.

Also, what made the four-year pro’s performance even worse was an ugly 29.7 run-defense grade. He’s an impending free agent in the offseason and, at this point, it’s hard to find many reasons why he’ll be in Las Vegas for much longer.

WINNER: Jakobi Meyers

Meyers has had a couple of strong performances in back-to-back weeks since returning from injury. This past game was especially impressive, logging nine catches for 105 yards which is his first triple-digit performance for the Silver and Black and just the fourth of his career.

Who knows what the future holds for the sixth-year pro as he has been the subject of trade rumors recently, but he has been playing well to either yield a good return ahead of Tuesday’s deadline or become a building block moving forward.

LOSER: Gardner Minshew

To be honest, Minshew didn’t play that badly on Sunday. However, he lands on the loser’s list as a botched handoff with D.J. Turner added to his turnover total for the season, and a three and out on the following possession resulted in yet another benching.

At the time of writing, Pierce hasn’t named a starting quarterback for the rest of the season, but the fact Minshew might lose the job to Desmond Ridder just adds to what’s been a miserable year for the Week 1 starting quarterback.

WINNER: Jordan Meredith

Meredith continues to be one of the biggest surprises for the Silver and Black this season. He took snaps at both left and right guard in Cincinnati and didn’t allow a pressure—he’s given up just one on the campaign—and posted a 79.1 run-blocking from PFF. At this rate, Meredith could easily become one of the team’s starting offensive linemen for the rest of this season and potentially longer if he keeps playing like this.