Scott Turner embracing 'a great opportunity' to be Raiders interim offensive coordinator, coach alongside his father

Nov 14, 2024 at 05:30 PM

Carter Owen

Digital Content Associate

After parting ways with Luke Getsy, the Las Vegas Raiders named Pass Game Coordinator Scott Turner the team's Interim Offensive Coordinator.

Turner received his first opportunity to call plays at the end of the 2019 season with the Carolina Panthers, being promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. Following that, he with the Washington Commanders for three seasons (2020-22) as their offensive coordinator.

Now in his second season with the Silver and Black, he'll be leaning on those past experiences to calls plays for the third time in his NFL coaching career.

"This league is tough," Scott Turner said Thursday morning. "It's very competitive. You got to bring it every day. Different people are going to play you different ways. Certain matchups are going to favor you schematically more than others. But really, it's just dealing with the people. This is a relationship business, and you got to understand what your guys on your team do the best, and then try to find a way to get that out of them and then get them to perform at the highest level every single week."

He's taking over an offense that ranks 18th in passing yards per game, 32nd in rushing yards per game and 24th in points per game. While implementing a brand-new offense in the middle of the season is an impractical solution, Head Coach Antonio Pierce is hopeful Turner's adjustments to the offensive operation will lead to increased success.

"Just wanted a change, wanted a spark, wanted different ideas. ... So, getting some more ideas, some outside ideas, different perspectives, game planning, how to attack the weakest link, how to get our players in the best position to be successful. That's what I'm looking forward to," Antonio Pierce said Wednesday.

"Being efficient in the running game, taking care of the football, having opportunities in the red zone, scoring, all those things that were flaws for us in the first nine, that's where we want to see improvement. The key word for us going forward, especially this week, is improvement."

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As Turner works with Pierce, interim offensive line coach Joe Philbin and the rest of the coaching staff to yield those improvements, he'll also have a familiar sounding board in his father, Norv Turner, who joined the Raiders as a Senior Advisor last Tuesday.

Norv has nearly 40 years of NFL coaching experience, with stints as an offensive coordinator for six different teams. He's also served 15 years as an NFL head coach with three different teams, including the Raiders from 2004-05.

"He has such a wealth of knowledge," Scott said. "We were joking about it, and I was telling the guys that he was calling offensive plays in the NFL from 1991 to 2019, and he only missed one year. He missed 2017. So, you have somebody that has done that. He had the number one offenses in three different decades. And he's my dad, so we like being around each other. We lost some coaches on offense, so just another set of eyes. He knows how I see football because I learned most of it from him. So, being able to have him at practice every day, not just watching the games from afar or whatever, and helping just with input is invaluable."

In addition to now having his dad around, it also didn't hurt having the bye week to reset and examine areas to tweak in the offensive operation.

"It was good," Scott said of the having an extra week to look at the offense. "It was really valuable for me. … Like what do I feel comfortable kind of changing or manipulating a little bit? That was big and kind of evaluating what we did well, evaluate stuff maybe we didn't do well and we want to kind of stay away from. And then every game is different. I told the players, it's eight one-week seasons. So, we're focused on Miami, we're all in on whatever we need to do."

With the bye week behind them, the Raiders are ready to attack the second half of the season. The Silver and Black's next test comes this Sunday against a talented Dolphins defense and it's one Scott Turner is embracing.

"It's a great opportunity, Scott said. Again, trying to get these guys going and just get the most out of them. That's what excites me, is the opportunity I think that we have to get better and go play and go try to win some football games."

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Las Vegas Raiders tackle Kolton Miller (74) during practice at Intermountain Health Performance Center.