Since ditching their solid but unspectacular Derek Carr plan, the Raiders have delivered a rudderless two years at quarterback. They have not seen their free agency and draft plans pan out, and the organization is amid a lengthy buildup to another true search for an answer.
Although the Raiders looked into Tom Brady as a player ahead of the 2023 free agency period, the former Josh McDaniels pupil retired for a second time. That did not stop Mark Davis from aligning with the QB legend soon after. It took a bit, but Brady’s ownership stake is now official, leading to what promises to be a prominent partnership — one that will not place the 23-year veteran as a figurehead.
Brady will play a “huge” role in personnel, with Davis going as far as to confirm this (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore) at the latest owners meetings Wednesday. Bonsignore reported earlier this week Brady will hold a prominent place in the Raiders’ decision-making hierarchy “over time.” This invites obvious intrigue due to Brady’s stature and how it will impact the authority of GM Tom Telseco, who controls the Raiders’ roster. This is a night-and-day turnaround from Brady’s June 2023 assessment, which pegged a “very passive” role in Las Vegas.
More specifically, Davis wants to hear an honest assessment from a qualified staffer who is not fearing for his job, according to Yahoo’s Charles Robinson. Buying a stake in the Raiders earlier this season — after more than a year of waiting — Brady has no concerns of being pushed out. The NFL has allowed him to operate dually as FOX’s top analyst, albeit with significant sanctions, and minority Raiders owner. That setup is interesting enough by itself, but with Brady set to help shape the Raiders’ long-term plan, how they will go about addressing the quarterback spot will be a central 2025 NFL storyline.
Brady does not hold personnel experience, but Davis is certainly set to lean on this century’s highest-profile player’s body of work within the game. As it stands, Brady will be perhaps the lead decision-maker when it comes to Las Vegas determining its QB answer.
As for where that player will come from, a drafted arm might not be a lock. Conflicting accounts have emerged, per Robinson, as to whether Davis will demand the Raiders draft a starter-caliber QB. Be it through the draft or a veteran acquisition, Robinson adds Davis will mandate a long-term plan to fix this issue. The Raiders also want to improve their roster before acquiring a to-be-determined long-term QB, Robinson adds, noting that in-house extensions may be on the horizon. Given the Raiders’ 2-11 record, it will be interesting to see which players become targets.
Although Ken Stabler played longer with the Raiders, Carr operated as the longest-running QB1 in team history. The Raiders erred by signing Jimmy Garoppolo, and Antonio Pierce repeatedly benched Garder Minshew despite the team having signed him to a two-year, $25MM deal in March. Since Carr was parked in Week 17 of the 2022 season due to his contract, the Raiders have started six quarterbacks. That number might balloon to seven Sunday, if Desmond Ridder is needed in place of Aidan O’Connell. Neither of those passers, however, will be expected to factor into Telesco, Davis and now Brady’s long-term plan.
With a month left in the season, the Raiders are projected to hold the No. 1 overall pick. This top-heavy season, though, has produced a host of challengers for that spot. And the 2025 draft’s QB crop is not viewed especially well. That could prompt the Raiders to look into other options — be it a true starter or another bridge plan ahead of 2026. Antonio Pierce, who pushed for a Jayden Daniels reunion, would almost definitely — if he is retained, that is — be against a second bridge plan ahead of a 2026 draft choice. But Pierce or his replacement will be answering to Brady and Telesco on this matter.
Once they learned no Daniels trade would happen, the Raiders had Michael Penix Jr. as a potential fallback option. But the team did not want to trade up for the Washington prospect, who went eighth overall to Atlanta. The Falcons choosing Penix at 8 flummoxed the Raiders, Robinson adds, as the Telesco-led front office believed he would be there at 13. With Penix going at 8, the Broncos scuttled any plans to trade down and drafted Bo Nix — who visited the Raiders — at 12. This left the Raiders in the cold at QB, though they did do well to acquire Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate Brock Bowers in a best-player-available pick.
Bowers’ historic pace should bode well for Telesco’s standing within the building, but soon he will need to provide Brady with answers at quarterback. It will be quite interesting to find out who will hold the anvil when it comes to how the franchise proceeds here in 2025, but given Davis’ comments, it should not be expected Brady will encounter significant pushback if he voices a strong opinion about a near-future path.
I now watch first team Fox NFL broadcasts with the mute button on. Great QB, terrible color analyst. I’m not hopeful about his “huge” NFL personnel future either.
I have watched 2 games he has done. First one was horrible. If the game itself wasn’t good would have gone and cleaned the bathroom. It was that bad that the toilet was more appealing than the announcers. The next game I watched was great. He was excited and into the whole game. I think he might need to be excited by the game. Which is bad.
I was talking to my son about announcers. I said the problem with the announcers is they are covering too many games. When we had the greats there were a lot fewer national games. Most games were covered regionally. He didn’t understand that you had so few games to watch. I tried to explain it but with the internet and network you can see everything for a price. They have spread out the announcers and even the (#1) crew isn’t truly the best. They use names over talent. Romo was good for awhile but now it seems he drones on and on. Showing people how smart he is. My son can watch a game and see the same as him. So not as impressive as it was.
Cant stand most announcers, especially Collinsworth who is just annoying. He glosses over average players for making a play for a few minutes and makes it seem like the best play this year. I remember SEA v SF last year and SEA RT Jason Peters held Bosa without a sack the 1st half. Peters goes out with an injury and next play Bosa gets a sack and Collinsworth lost his mind glossing over Bosa amd how great he is. Romo and Brady at least know what they’re talking about. Troy Aikman is full of himself, Al Michaels has been around way to long and just doesn’t care anymore. Best duo is Kevin Harlan and Kurt Warner on the radio imo. Harlan is amazing
The players demanded AP as their HC, only to revolt. Now Mark will give controls to a minority owner? More losing seasons Raiders’ nation, enjoy it.
If your a Raiders fan you’re probably hoping that Mark Davis sells off enough ownership shares that his own opinions become irrelevant. Brady won’t help much but you have to think he couldn’t be much worse than Davis or Telseco.
Can we discuss how Bowers is quietly on pace to set the rookie reception record, yet won’t even come close to winning offensive rookie of the year because the Raiders are so bad?
If you play for the Raiders you have to set your goal at being nominated for Nickelodeon Player of the Week 🙂
“Earn the overall #1 and trade back. Thank 2025.
From what I’ve read, there’s not much to trade up for. No sure fire QBs, LTs, WRs etc. Just Travis Hunter.
If he’s planning to make personnel decisions, then he needs to stop being an announcer 5 minutes ago. Period.
What year is this reboot in now? 10?
Can the league force Brady out of his Fox gig? It is moronic to allow him to have an ownership interest while being a broadcaster, where a broadcasting role typically comes with access to teams in the lead up to the broadcast.
Someone please explain what all of the big secrets announcers allegedly have access to are. I just don’t get what Brady could even tell the Raiders if he spoke with other players prior to a game…even if it was against the Raiders. All the NFL should do is not allow him to commentate Raider games.
Coaches tell them players that they are developing, different strategies that they use to take advantages of strengths/weaknesses, different adjustments to game plans, and perhaps most importantly, injuries. There’s an absolute ton of information that somebody can glean from being told which players will be available for what roles, and which players are best at certain things that make the game plan run. If a coach, for instance, says that he’s noticed a big change in the offense in practice when #32 runs an outside stretch behind #63, instead of running #21 on the same stretch, then the announcer knows that #32 coming in probably means an outside stretch to whatever side #63 is blocking. Surely you could see how that could be an advantage.
Even something as simple as “#12 really impressed us in the preseason, and he executed his assignments well, and did all the dirty workin the trenches, and we know that we can count on him in clutch situations,” could be useful. Now the announcer knows to watch for #12 on third down or some other clutch scenario, because the team thinks that he’s reliable and tough. A coach could say, “#22 is the real engine that’s the soul of the team, and he really sets the tone.” Well, now we know that #22 is probably going to get the ball often and early.
If the announcer gets an injury report, or hears that a player hurt an ankle in practice but will go at game time, he’ll know what limitations that player could potentially face in game. There are a ton of things that announcers have to know that aren’t exactly public.
Announcers don’t need that info to call a game. I have never heard an announcer say anything near ‘player X is limited because his coach told me before the game’ or ‘player 22 is getting the ball often because he’s good’.
This is all stating the obvious by doing your job and watch a lot of football and spout nonsense that you used to do 10 years ago (Romo). Most of these ex-players still know a lot of people in the league and you better bet they have back channels to this type of data.
Uhh, no, they do production meetings. They reference those meetings during the broadcast. The announcers don’t just guess at plays based purely on prior knowledge. That certainly helps, as do their connections, and can help separate good and knowledgeable announcers from less knowledgeable ones, but they definitely do sit down and get data or pointers from interviews.
The announcers don’t just magically know that third string depth guy who’s coming in to play a certain role because his name’s on the chart-they have researchers to give them that information or have interviews that hinted at some packages that could be installed. How many times have we heard an announcer say, “Coach [name here] said that we shouldn’t be surprised to see a few packages for [player here], we like what he can do here.”
Whatever form that may take, Brady shouldn’t be entitled to it simply because he is Tom Brady. Any other name wouldn’t get that privilege, because no matter how small you think that is, it still exists. There’s no reason he should be allowed to have that role just because of who he is.
I believe the league restricted his access to practices and players prior to games as a condition for his ownership approval.
There will always be questions and speculation. The league had a chance to fix this prior to the ownership vote and chose to bury their heads in the sand. Oh, and he’s really not that good, but that is Fox’s problem, but also fans who have to listen to him.
Yeah, real passive.