The Las Vegas Raiders are already casting a wide net with their head coaching search, but there should be plenty of other candidates they’re going to look at. Some of the top college football candidates are effectively off limits right now with the College Football Playoff underway.
However, one name who is bound to garner at least some interest is Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti. He has no NFL experience, but he’s been coaching for over 40 years and is clearly an excellent culture builder.
His star quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, is likely be the No. 1 pick of the Raiders in the 2026 NFL Draft. Rich Eisen believes that this could be the perfect time for Cignetti to make the jump to the NFL.
“If I’m Mark Davis, the first person I call, and I understand this would be out of the ordinary,” Eisen said on the “Rich Eisen Show.” “And I understand I might be stirring something up that doesn’t exist. But I wanna find out. … I’m just gonna say it, if you don’t mind.
“I’m going to say, I find out the phone number of Curt Cignetti. And I call him up, and I say ‘Listen, I don’t mean to disturb you’. … I don’t know if you’re aware, but we hold the first pick in the draft. And you’ve got Heisman-doza quarterback that we’re kinda interested in. And I don’t know if you’re interested in this pro game. … But do you want to move to Las Vegas, Nevada, and be, still coaching your superb individual human being and quarterback Fernando Mendoza?”
Is Cignetti Right for NFL?
Cignetti might be the best coach in college football. He’s going to make a ton of money at Indiana or wherever he decides to end up. He’s going to be a made man for a long time, and some people don’t like to give that up.
Cignetti is already 64, so he’s not a young up-and-coming star like Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman. If an NFL team is going to hire him, they have to be confident that he can learn the pro game quickly.
Saban is widely considered the greatest college football coach ever, and he failed at the NFL level. Now, that doesn’t mean Cignetti can’t make it work. He obviously knows what he’s doing as a coach, and college football is more similar to the NFL now with NIL. It’d be a risk, but if it works out, he could be the next Jim Harbaugh or Pete Carroll.
Would Raiders Want Cignetti?
The biggest thing that might steer the Raiders away from Cignetti is his age. The team just had a 74-year-old Carroll, and they could prefer going younger at the position.
Pairing Cignetti with Mendoza would certainly be tempting. The two clearly work really well together. The problem is the rest of the roster. Cignetti is known to be a bit more gruff, so he could rub players the wrong way. He’d probably be worth the risk for a franchise that hasn’t cycled through so many head coaches in recent years, but the Raiders might rather have a younger coach they can grow with.
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