As the Las Vegas Raiders prepare to hire their next coach, whatever decision they make is of importance to the Denver Broncos and their fans. The Raiders have made a few laughable hires lately, with their last three head coaches all being fired with different levels of shame and humiliation around them. Whether it be Jon Gruden and his past, Josh McDaniels and his terrible head coaching track record, or Antonio Pierce being the rare one-and-done. The Raiders have a few bad names they could hire, but a new contestant has entered the fold.
The Raiders have interviewed Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson for their head gig, and Johnson is regarded as the NFL's most sought-after head coaching candidate this cycle. His offense in Detroit has been dominant, consistent, and arguably the most entertaining group in football. His Lions, however, fell to the Washington Commanders on Saturday night, ending their season that had gone 15-2 in the regular season, wrapping up the NFC's number one seed and ensuring home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
Should the Broncos be hoping the Raiders hire Ben Johnson?
With how good the Lions were this year, their offense very rarely found themselves playing from behind or needing to try and catch up to another team. As the Lions got down two scores on Saturday, Johnson was pressed with needing to find a way to continue to score against Washington and do what he could to keep his team in the game.
Down ten points with 12 minutes to go, Ben Johnson committed what many would consider to be a fireable offense if he was not already halfway out the door. On first and ten from mid-field, Johnson dialed up a trick play. While running a trick play itself is not the issue, the issue is just how Johnson dialed it up. With the season on the line in the playoffs, Johnson dialed up a wide receiver pass that was thrown into double coverage, that really could be considered triple coverage.
Quite literally, the Lions' season died at the hands of a Jameson Williams passing interception. Of all the ways for the Lions' season, a season that many believed would end in a Super Bowl championship, a Jameson Williams passing interception was not on many people's radars.
If this is how Johnson will behave when facing a deficit or adversity on the field, his potential tenure in Las Vegas might be messy. The Raiders figure to struggle again next year, and there are no quick fixes or plug-and-play quarterbacks that fit their needs or contractual abilities unless they hand out top dollar to Sam Darnold.