New Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels is putting high expectations on himself for his first year in Las Vegas.
McDaniels said he has every expectation that the Raiders team he inherited can win in 2022, building off the playoff team he inherited.
“I don’t think in today’s NFL there’s really any time to do rebuilding anyway,” McDaniels said, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “This certainly isn’t that type of situation for us.”
The Raiders made the playoffs with a 10-7 record last season, but they really weren’t as good as that 10-7 record suggests. They were outscored over the course of the season, scoring 374 points while allowing 439, which is more typical for a 7-10 team than a 10-7 team. They closed the season with four consecutive close wins over non-playoff teams to sneak into the postseason.
Which means McDaniels may not be inheriting a team that’s ready to win right away. But he’s setting the expectation that they ought to be better in 2022 than they were in 2021.