Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce has said he expects to still be on the sidelines next season as he reflects on a year in which his side won just four of their 17 games.

Pierce, whose father is Bermudian, has been praised by his players for keeping them motivated despite a ten-game mid-season losing streak and team unity is part of the reason he expects to be back as head coach in 2025.

“I'm really proud of how we finished the season,” Pierce said at a press conference on Monday.

“I haven’t heard anything different about the job and all the talk is coming from outside the building, not inside.

“I’m not going to change, win lose or draw. I’m AP regardless of if I’m standing in front of you or I’m outside this building. I treat these guys like men and they understand that. We talk, we have honest conversations. It doesn’t just happen when we win and pat ourselves on the back. When we lose, we’re straightforward.

“It is challenging, though, to go in front of the team when you lose ten straight and motivate them, but we are a young team and they are learning how to be pros. In the last few weeks you saw the improvements in technique and the fundamentals.

“What I need to do a better job with is going with my gut. I was better at that last year. This year I didn’t do what I wanted to do as much as I wanted to do it. Lessons learnt.”

The NFL draft, in which the Raiders pick sixth, will be crucial but Pierce believes he the support of the fans to continue.

“We gotta get better players, we have to coach better and you have to do a lot of things better when you’ve won only four games,” Pierce said

“But I appreciate the support, win lose or draw. When you take this job and you’re the face of the organisation you take the good and the bad.

“When you win everybody is ‘AP, AP’ and when you lose it’s ‘get rid of his ass’. I get it, that’s the nature of the beast, but it’s no different to when I played. When you play well, they keep you and give you more money. If you don’t, you go to another team.

“That’s the good part of being a former player, you get the nature of the business. But Raider Nation has been great. For the nine road games we played, they showed up, they were loud and I appreciate the support.

Asked for one of his key learnings this season, Pierce will be making changes away from the heat of competition

“We really need to look at how we handle our business in training camp and that transition,” Pierce said.

“We picked up a lot of injuries so I will talk to our training staff and medical staff to see what we can do better this time around.”