As the Raiders continue their search for the next head football coach,

they have to ask the question, if not now, then when?

Well, at least that's the question I'm asking.

That plus more comes up on Friday's edition of the Locked On Raiders podcast for January 16th,

2026.

You are Locked on Raiders, your daily Las Vegas Raiders podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Welcome to Raider Nation to another edition of the Locked On Raiders podcast, part of the

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We're very proud of that.

We're also very proud of the fact that this show continues to grow each and every day,

and that's because of your support and the great job that my man Ari does behind the scenes, making sure we look good and sound good by way of the YouTube page. So we shout him out. We appreciate him in a major way. You can find him on Twitter at Ari Produces. You can hit me up as well as many of you do at your boy Q254. And if you want to be a part of the show. We got the Lockdown Raider podcast podcast voicemail line for you 707-6-5-4-4693. And as we normally do, we'll close out the show hearing from you. A lot of really good calls, a lot of really good text. We'll try to get in as many as possible as we close things out. Segment number two, I want to talk about this opportunity that the Raiders have this off season, right? We know that they're a team and an organization that needs a complete overhaul.

We know that they're looking for a head coach. They're looking for their franchise quarterback. They've got a ton of free agents and they've got a lot of salary cap space. So if they're not going to get it done right this off season, are they ever going to get it done right? It's been a very long time. So I pose the question, throw out the facts. And we'll talk about that coming up in segment number two.

Here is segment number one, news and notes of the day. And it's all about the head coaching search. And we'll tell you about that after I talked to you about Game Time. The title sponsor the show, download the Game Time app, create an account, use promo code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. So we know that the Raiders have been fast and furious on the head coaching search. They interviewed five guys last week. They put in requests for at least six guys this week, and they've already interviewed a handful of guys, and they'll continue with their interviews. So so far this week, Panthers' defensive coordinator, Ejaro Eevero, has been interviewed, Charges defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, and also on Thursday, Green Bay Packers,

defensive coordinator Jeff Halfley. So all those interviews are in the books. And today,

they'll be interviewing with Rams passing game coordinator, Nate Shieldhouse. Matter of

fact, Jeremy Fallett from ESPN tweeted out on Thursday, Rams passing game coordinator,

Nate Shieldhouse will handle his head coaching interviews Friday. The emerging offensive coach has the Raiders, Steelers, Ravens, and Browns on the docket. So he's not just a one interview guy, right? He's a guy that has many different teams interested in him. So at the very end of the day, he's at least going to get to sit down and, you know, give his thoughts and his conversations and, you know, see where it can go. But it sounds like he's a guy that's got a lot of respect around the league and that many teams, not just the silver and black, are paying attention to him. You can kind of tell sometimes when an interview is just maybe a favorite interview, and then you could tell when an interview is like a legit interview. And when you have organizations like the Steelers, Ravens, and Browns also trying to interview along with the Silver and Black, the Steelers and Ravens are very serious organizations. Remember the conversation? Serious, unsurious, and for entertainment purposes only, you can look at the Browns and say maybe they're for entertainment purposes only. You can say whatever you want say about the Raiders, right? That's fine. I'm not mad at that. But the Steelers and Ravens, we all know, is a very serious organization. So if Nate Schillhouse is getting interviewed requests from those organizations, you know it's got to be a really good one. And I'm still expecting sooner rather than later, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula and their offensive coordinator, or Mike LaFleur, to be interviewing with the Silver and Black as well. Those are two other guys that the Raiders did put out requests for, but still have not, at least I haven't seen yet when they're going to interview, but I do assume that they'll do that. And if they don't do it by this weekend, then obviously they'll do it after the game. You know, if they go to Chicago and win the game and they're preparing for the championship game, the NFC championship game, or if they lose the game and they have their offseason, then those interviews will take place. But I'm expecting Chris Shula and Mike LaFleura to be added to the mix sooner rather than later. And who knows, maybe today we'll find out that, oh, it happened later on this afternoon, and I just wasn't aware of it. But do know for a fact that Nate Shieldhouse, a guy that I think has a real possibility of landing a job, might not be the head coaching job, but a job in the Raiders organization and their coaching staff will be interviewing today. A couple quick predictions that I want to throw out there. Albert Breer, Monday morning quarterback, a guy that I got a lot of respect for. He believes that Broncos quarterback coach Davis Webb is going to end up landing that Raiders head coaching job. And remember, the Raiders have multiple guys from the Denver organization in the front office. So I like to pass that along because Albert Breer is a guy that's pretty plugged in. He knows what he's talking about. He's not just pulling something out his backside, throwing it against the wall and hoping it sticks. That's not his style, right? Whenever he says something, it's usually because he's hearing something. I remember when Josh McDaniels was out there and available to be a head coach, and he started pairing the Raiders with Josh McDaniels pretty early on.

And we all saw how that played out.

Once he started saying, hey, you know, I think a good fit would be Josh McDaniels in Las Vegas with the Raiders. I thought, oh boy, right? And then I didn't know how it was going to go. And ultimately, Josh McDaniels got that job. So again, I'm not saying that Davis Webb is going to get it because Albert Breer said so,

but those are the kind of guys that I pay attention to.

Another guy I pay attention to, Albright from K-O-A and Colorado NFL Insider. He thinks defensive coordinator Brian Flores is going to be the Raiders next head coach. And that one's interesting to me. Why is that interesting? Because that was the one that was rumored off top. Remember the very first rumor

and report that was out there before the season even got wrapped up. Remember the Raiders were getting

...