With Antonio Pierce in place, when will the Raiders make a GM decision?

Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis entered this latest coaching and general manager search with plans to have a GM in place first.

“I believe the GM has to have some say in who the coaching staff is going to be,” Davis said Dec. 13 in a sitdown interview with The Athletic.

So, what happened? The Raiders announced Friday that Antonio Pierce will ditch the interim tag and remain as the team’s full-time coach. But as for interim GM Champ Kelly, the presumed leading candidate who has interviewed twice and met a third time with Raiders brass Friday, the wait continues.

Kelly still has a chance to get the job, but there’s a “split camp” within the Raiders’ hiring committee, according to a team source with knowledge of the situation. It’s unclear when that split occurred, but the Raiders’ top two candidates are believed to be Kelly and Indianapolis Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds, according to league sources not authorized to speak publicly about the situation. Former Los Angeles Chargers GM Tom Telesco and Cincinnati Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown are also still in the mix.

A couple of candidates reached out to the Raiders last week to withdraw their names when it seemed like Kelly was a slam dunk but were told to hold off, according to league sources. Hiring Pierce before working through that process is a drastic pivot considering the Raiders’ behavior up to that point.

Last week, the Raiders’ hiring committee of Davis, president Sandra Douglass Morgan, board of directors member Larry Delsen, senior vice president/director of football administration Tom Delaney, former Raiders personnel director Ken Herock and former Raiders defensive end Richard Seymour interviewed six GM candidates.

Kelly, Dodds, Telesco, Brown, Buffalo Bills director of player personnel Terrance Gray and Denver Broncos executive director of football operations Kelly Kleine Van Calligan each had in-person interviews with the hiring committee. Brown, Gray and Van Calligan are all external diverse candidates, so it made the Raiders compliant with the Rooney Rule and freed them up to make a GM hire whenever they’re ready.

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The Raiders brought Kelly in for a second conversation Monday before having him join the hiring committee for some of the head coaching interviews of Leslie Frazier, Kris Richard and Pierce, according to a team source. Frazier and Richard both spent this season out of the NFL, thus making them eligible for in-person interviews. The NFL’s Rooney Rule requires in-person interviews with at least two external diverse candidates. Coaches still employed by an NFL team cannot be interviewed in person until after this weekend’s divisional-round playoff games.

It was clear the Raiders were locked in on Pierce as head coach. And many people in the building thought that meant Kelly would be hired full time, as well. On Tuesday, Kelly and the personnel staff held free-agency meetings, according to a team source. After the meetings were finished, the personnel department was given the rest of the week off. The sense when they departed was that both Pierce and Kelly would soon be officially hired.

The sense early last week was that Champ Kelly was expected to be hired as the Raiders’ full-time GM. (Jeff Bottari / Getty Images)

Instead, the Raiders still appear to be undecided about what to do at GM. Kelly had his third meeting with the Raiders’ hiring committee Friday after Pierce’s hire became official, but he left the building without a deal in place. The situation has raised questions about what the holdup could be. Did Davis get cold feet about moving forward with a first-time general manager and first-time coach? He’s mentioned that as a regret with the Reggie McKenzie-Dennis Allen pairing in 2012.

Kelly took over as the Raiders interim GM hours after the trade deadline had passed, so he didn’t have quite the same opportunity as Pierce to prove himself by making big roster moves. Still, the Raiders thought highly enough of Kelly to interview him two years ago before hiring Dave Ziegler, and then brought him on as an assistant GM.

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Davis and the Raiders have had two years to evaluate Kelly firsthand. The Raiders certainly made significant personnel missteps in that stretch as the department was led by Ziegler with strong influence from former coach Josh McDaniels. But, for all the misses like signing Chandler Jones and Jimmy Garoppolo and releasing Derek Carr for no compensation a year after giving him an extension, there have been some hits. The Raiders traded for star receiver Davante Adams and signed productive players like receiver Jakobi Meyers and linebacker Robert Spillane. They’ve also drafted potential key pieces like running back Zamir White, guard Dylan Parham, receiver Tre Tucker and tight end Michael Mayer.

It seemed that Kelly did enough to earn a chance to show how he can shape a roster on his own. He received endorsements from Davis himself, the personnel department, the coaching staff and several players. The Raiders appeared ready to give him that chance as recently as earlier this week.

Since then, Dodds has gained momentum. Obviously, Kelly has pre-existing ties with those in the building, but Dodds does, as well. Dodds started his NFL career as a pro personnel intern in 2003 and formed a relationship with late Raiders owner Al Davis. Dodds also interviewed with the Raiders two years ago and is familiar with Mark Davis. Perhaps significantly, he and Pierce are both represented by sports agency Athletes First.

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That final note leads to another Dodds connection: Herock. While Herock doesn’t have an official role with the Raiders, Davis has leaned on him as an adviser for years and he was instrumental in the hirings of McDaniels and Ziegler, both also Athletes First clients. Herock has a business called Pro Prep, which prepares NFL prospects for their pre-draft interviews, and has also done consulting work for Athletes First, according to team and league sources.

According to league sources, Herock has been one of Dodds’ most adamant supporters.

Whomever the Raiders hire as their next GM, optics could be an issue. Given he’s officially onboard now, Pierce could have input in the decision, which would naturally raise the question of whether he or the GM has more power. That was an issue with McDaniels and Ziegler, and that’s something that has bothered Davis.

“I think there’s been a misconception on the last head coach and general manager and who had the authority,” Davis said last month. “The general manager had the final authority on all of it. Whether he accepted that authority or not is a different story, but it was very clear when they were hired where the buck stopped.”

Davis seemingly wanted to avoid the debate about who had final say on football matters, but he’s signed himself up for it again by hiring Pierce ahead of the GM.

Understandably, Davis is more concerned about getting the GM hire right. The Raiders have suffered from years of poor draft picks, free-agent signings, trades and extensions, and they need that trend to come to an end for Pierce to have any chance of being successful long term.

(Top photo of Antonio Pierce and Champ Kelly: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)