Las Vegas Raiders fire general manager Tom Telesco after just one year

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Las Vegas Raiders fire general manager Tom Telesco after just one year

2025-01-10 11:44 Last Updated At：11:50

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — The Las Vegas Raiders continued their housecleaning Thursday, firing general manager Tom Telesco just two days after dismissing coach Antonio Pierce.

The moves took place after the Raiders went 4-13 this season.

“We appreciate his efforts in helping build a foundation for the future,” the club said in a statement. “We wish Tom and his family all the best.”

The Raiders will become just the second franchise in the Super Bowl era to enter a season three years in a row with a new GM and coach. Coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler were in charge to open the 2023 season. The Cleveland Browns in 2012-14 are the other club to hold such a distinction.

Owner Mark Davis had said Telesco and Pierce would be evaluated separately, and the GM's firing was the more surprising of the two. Telesco had a strong draft last April in which he landed in the first three rounds an AP Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate in Brock Bowers and two starting offensive linemen.

But Telesco didn't draft or sign the franchise-changing quarterback the Raiders so badly need. He instead signed journeyman Gardner Minshew to a two-year, $25 million contract. Minshew won the starting job in training camp, but then lost it to Aidan O'Connell after five weeks.

How much of that was Telesco's fault is questionable. The top six quarterbacks in the draft went off the board by the time Las Vegas selected at No. 13, and there were no guarantees on the free-agent market. But Telesco also doesn't have a history of being aggressive with draft-day trades, so the Raiders never budged from their pecking order.

This year, minority owner Tom Brady is expected to have more of a say in operations.

The Raiders hired Telesco after he was let go by the Los Angeles Chargers, where he held the same position for 11 years.

He and Pierce came in at about the same time, though Pierce already was in the building, having been promoted to interim head coach midway through the 2023 season. Pierce was named the full-time coach after going 5-4.

So now the Raiders will have two searches taking place at the same time, and it's possible the next hires will be a package deal if a coaching candidate has a particular person in mind.

The Raiders haven't wasted time in searching for a new coach.

They requested interviews Wednesday with Detroit Lions coordinators Aaron Glenn on defense and Ben Johnson on offense and Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

Las Vegas has since added former New York Jets coach Robert Saleh and Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken to their request lists. ESPN also reported that former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll will interview next week. He interviewed with the Chicago Bears on Thursday.

Carroll, 73, went 137-89 from 2010-23 with Seattle, reaching two Super Bowls and winning one. He also won a national championship at Southern California.

Saleh took over the Jets in 2021, going 20-36 until he was fired five games into this season. There were questions about his relationship with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and beginning the season 2-3 didn't give Saleh much of a benefit of the doubt in owner Woody Johnson's eyes.

But the Jets went 3-9 after Saleh's firing. He is a defensive coach, and New York went from allowing 255.8 yards and 17 points per game in five contests under him to averages 337.9 yards and 26.6 points following his dismissal.

Monken is completing his second season as the Ravens' offensive coordinator. Quarterback Lamar Jackson was the league MVP last season and is a strong candidate again this year.

The Ravens led the NFL this season with 424.9 yards per game and were third with a 30.5-point average. They were in the top six in both categories a year ago.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

New LA-area fire prompts more evacuations while over 10,000 structures lost to the 2 biggest blazes

2025-01-10 11:34 Last Updated At：11:41

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The two biggest wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area this week burned at least 10,000 homes, buildings and other structures, officials said Thursday as they urged more people to heed evacuation orders after a new blaze ignited and quickly grew.

The fast-moving Kenneth Fire started in the late afternoon in the San Fernando Valley near the West Hills neighborhood and close to Ventura County. Only hours earlier officials expressed encouragement after firefighters aided by calmer winds and help from crews from outside the state saw the first signs of successfully beating back the region’s devastating wildfires that have killed seven people so far.

“We are expecting this fire to rapidly spread due to high winds,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said, echoing the forecast that called for winds to strengthen Thursday evening through Friday morning.

The orders came as Los Angeles County officials announced the Eaton Fire near Pasadena that started Tuesday night has burned more than 5,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles. To the west in Pacific Palisades, the largest of the fires burning in the LA area has destroyed over 5,300 structures.

Between the Eaton and Palisades fires, more than 10,000 structures have burned.

All of the large fires that have broken out this week in the Los Angeles area are located in a roughly 25-mile band north of downtown.

The Kenneth blaze ignited less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the El Camino Real Charter High School, where people are sheltering from the fire in Palisades. The two fires are about 10 miles (18 kilometers) apart.

Dozens of blocks were flattened to smoldering rubble in scenic Pacific Palisades. Only the outlines of homes and their chimneys remained. In Malibu, blackened palm strands were all that was left above debris where oceanfront homes once stood.

At least five churches, a synagogue, seven schools, two libraries, boutiques, bars, restaurants, banks and groceries were lost. So too were the Will Rogers’ Western Ranch House and Topanga Ranch Motel, local landmarks dating to the 1920s. The government has not yet released figures on the cost of the damage or specifics about how many structures burned.

AccuWeather, a private company that provides data on weather and its impact, on Thursday increased its estimate of the damage and economic loss to $135-$150 billion.

Firefighters made significant gains Thursday at slowing the spread of the Eaton and Palisades fires, though Eaton remained at zero percent contained and Palisades at only a small percentage.

Crews also knocked down a blaze in the Hollywood Hills, allowing an evacuation to be lifted Thursday. The fire that sparked up late Wednesday near the heart of the entertainment industry came perilously close to igniting the famed Hollywood Bowl outdoor concert venue.

“While we are still facing significant threats, I am hopeful that the tide is turning,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Thursday.

Water dropped from aircraft helped fire crews quickly seize control of the fires in the Hollywood Hills and Studio City, officials said. Much of the widespread destruction occurred Tuesday after those aircraft were grounded due to high winds.

Fire officials said Thursday that they don’t yet know the cause of the fires but are actively investigating.

Earlier in the week, hurricane-force winds blew embers, igniting the Southern California hillsides.

Right now, it’s impossible to quantify the extent of the destruction other than “total devastation and loss,” said Barbara Bruderlin, head of the Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce.

“There are areas where everything is gone, there isn’t even a stick of wood left, it’s just dirt,” Bruderlin said.

Of the seven deaths so far, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley confirmed two were in the Palisades Fire. County officials said the Eaton Fire had killed five.

Cadaver dogs and search crews are searching through rubble, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

Anthony Mitchell, a 67-year-old amputee, and his son, Justin, who had cerebral palsy, were waiting for an ambulance to come, but they did not make it out, Mitchell’s daughter, Hajime White, told The Washington Post.

Shari Shaw told KTLA that she tried to get her 66-year-old brother, Victor Shaw, to evacuate Tuesday night but he wanted to stay and fight the fire. Crews found his body with a garden hose in his hand.

On Thursday, recovery crews pulled a body from rubble of what was a beachfront residence in Malibu on the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. A charred washer and dryer were among the few things that remained.

At least 180,000 people were under evacuation orders, and the fires have consumed about 45 square miles (117 square kilometers) — roughly the size of San Francisco. The Palisades Fire is already the most destructive in Los Angeles’ history.

All schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, will be closed Friday because of the heavy smoke wafting over the city and ash raining down in parts, and classes will not resume until the conditions improve, officials said.

At least 20 arrests have been made for looting, and the city of Santa Monica declared a curfew Wednesday night because of the lawlessness, officials said. Luna said to protect properties national guard troops would be stationed near the areas ravaged by fire and a curfew was expected to go into effect from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m., starting as soon as Thursday.

Flames destroyed the homes of several celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton.

Jamie Lee Curtis pledged $1 million to start a “fund of support” for those affected by the fires that touched all economic levels from the city’s wealthy to its working class.

California’s wildfire season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data.

Dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, which has not seen more than 0.1 inches (2.5 millimeters) of rain since early May.

Robert Lara sifted through the remains of his home in Altadena on Thursday with tears in his eyes, hoping to find a safe containing a set of earrings that once belonged to his great-great-grandmother.

“All our memories, all our sentimental attachments, things that were gifted from generation to generation to generation are now gone,” he said.

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio and Watson from San Diego. Associated Press journalists Manuel Valdes, Eugene Garcia and Krysta Fauria, Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles; Ethan Swope in Pasadena, California; Hallie Golden in Seattle; Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Janie Har in San Francisco; Brian Melley in London; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; and Tammy Webber in Detroit contributed.