Raiders scoff at 2024 predictions, take up for Antonio Pierce

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- Jack Jones, the Las Vegas Raiders' boisterous cornerback, is keeping calm. But he's also keeping receipts.

Same with linebacker Robert Spillane, who usually keeps to himself, but is now speaking out.

Three-time Pro Bowl defensive end and face of the franchise Maxx Crosby even addressed the team in a meeting.

And coach Antonio Pierce is fine with it all. Whatever floats the Raiders' rollicking boat early in camp, right?

"They got a chip on their shoulder," Pierce said. "They're pissed off, and that's good. And as long as we [channel] that energy into something positive on game day, we'll be fine."

At the root of the Raiders' consternation? Recent national predictions that have them going no better than 6-11, and a national ranking that rates Pierce, revered in the Raiders' locker room and entering his first full season as head coach at any level other than high school, as the 28th-best head coach in the 32-team NFL.

Yeah, the "disrespect" raised more than hackles in the streets of Silver and Blackdom. And as Jones said, Crosby addressed it

"This is what they think about us," Crosby said, per Jones. "How we going to handle it?"

Well?

"I'm angry, not just about that ranking, about a lot of rankings that go on," Spillane said. "And, of course, it adds to the fuel to the fire. So you see it -- you don't want to see it, you don't really care -- but at the end of the day, you want respect.

"What I say now gets none of that done. So, we're going to go out there and make it happen."

The Raiders are coming off an 8-9 season and have had only two playoff appearances, with no postseason wins, since the start of the 2003 season -- in 2016 and 2021.

They are in the midst of a QB battle between strong-armed and second-year returner Aidan O'Connell and veteran Gardner Minshew, on his fourth team in five years.

And while Pierce went 5-4 as interim coach to win the full-time job, critics wonder how he will react to not playing with house money as an interim coach.

Still, the Raiders have designs on boasting a top 10 defense, and with a reimagined offense, they have goals of returning to the playoffs. And, hey, they are still the last team to beat the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, right?

Little of that matters, though, to the so-called haters and cynics, as the players note, even as they claim to turn a blind eye to the 24/7 news, hot take and gossip cycle.

"I think it's hard in today's world [to ignore it] because they have access to everything," Pierce said. "They're going to find out one way or another through social media, somebody texting you, telling you.

"As you know, our team is very outspoken and when they feel something, they talk about it. But I think [Jones and Spillane] both said the right thing -- that we got to go out there and change the narrative. And that's what our plan is."

Still, it's a fine line between using the critiques as fuel and simply marinating and wallowing in it.

"You can't say you don't see it, because you're being tagged in it and all that stuff," Jones said. "I wouldn't say it's important to check it, but you definitely can't ignore it because you can't let anybody talk however about you.

"I mean, [Pierce] being ranked the 28th coach, I felt like they was disrespecting me, the team, him. I don't like that. That set a fire under me. We're going to show everybody [a prediction of] 6-11 is crazy. I mean, I'm going to get beat 11 times throughout the year? I'm going to lose more than I win? I don't like that. That's not who we are. That's not why we're working. That's not why we're here. We're going to step up and we're going to show why."