Raiders special teams coordinator Tom McMahon was fired Friday after yet another performance in which the kicking team helped cost Las Vegas a victory.
Derius Swinton II will become the interim coordinator. He was the assistant special teams coach.
Making an in-season coaching change has become a nearly annual activity for the Raiders. Going back to 2017, they have fired a head coach, coordinator or general manager each season, except 2019 and 2022. They even made multiple changes in 2023, letting go coach Josh McDaniels, general manager Dave Ziegler and offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi.
McMahon was one of two coordinators first-year coach Pete Carroll retained from last season’s staff. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was the other.
“I have a great amount of respect for Tom and the work that he has done in this league, but we have decided to move in a different direction,” Carroll said in a statement.
The Raiders can point to three losses in which special teams were critical to those defeats.
That includes Thursday night’s 10-7 loss at Denver in which Daniel Carlson missed what would have been a tying 48-yard field goal with 4:26 left. The Broncos then ran out the clock to secure the victory.
Carlson also had what would have been the winning field goal blocked in a 25-24 loss to Chicago on Sept. 28, and missed an extra point in Sunday’s 30-29 overtime loss to Jacksonville that proved to be crucial.
He is in the final season of his contract.
“He has to kick better,” Carroll said after Thursday’s game. “It kills him, too. He wants to make every one of those, and he has to kick better.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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