There were always going to be growing pains for Antonio Pierce.
While he did serve as the Las Vegas Raiders interim head coach last season which parlayed itself into landing the full-time gig, for all intents and purposes, “AP” is a full-time rookie. And, as is the case with a prospects taken in the NFL Draft, trials and tribulation are to be expected.
Pierce did well to help mitigate that by not only seeking counsel and mentorship from veteran coaches like Tom Coughlin, Marvin Lewis, and Adam Gase in his interim year but adding Lewis and veteran coaches Joe Philbin and (later) Norv Turner to his coaching staff this year.