The Raiders finally have their head coach and general manager, and the consensus seems to be that Mark Davis and his ownership allies have the team moving in a good direction again.
There was a lot of enthusiasm around the building this week with the introduction of Pete Carroll, but the offseason is just getting started and the football storylines in Las Vegas are just getting started.
Let’s take a look at a comments around the Raiders this week that might have flown under the radar a little.
Tom Brady going to “make sure” Maxx Crosby stays with the Raiders?
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini has been out in front of a few stories around the Raiders in recent months and she said this week that minority owner Tom Brady has no interest in trading Maxx Crosby.
“Since we’re talking about Vegas. I just feel like I’m seeing so many headlines about like, ‘Maxx is frustrated, Maxx wants this, Maxx wants that, right?’ I mean, the guy’s been on his fifth head coach in seven years,” Russini said on the Scoop City podcast.
“Think about that. That’s miserable. But that being said, with Tom Brady running the show in Las Vegas, which we’ve talked about on the show since he became a minority owner, that he has his hands all over everything… just look at who they hired. He obviously weighed in with the coach in the GM, with Pete Carroll and John Spytek. So he’s going to make sure that Maxx Crosby is a pillar of the Vegas Raiders. He’s a centerpiece. You can’t move on from a guy like Maxx Crosby.”
Was Crosby fine with Antonio Pierce being fired?
Russini’s co-host, Chase Daniel, made a comment that definitely seemed to hint to the idea of Crosby being supportive of the Raiders moving on from Pierce.
“You’d be stupid to move on from a guy like Maxx Crosby. I feel like, yeah, because I feel like there’s always, at least not always, the last couple of years, and even the off season, it’s like Maxx is not happy. Maxx wants this,” Daniel said.
“Maxx wanted Antonio Pierce and then Maxx didn’t want Antonio Pierce. Now the Raiders retain Patrick Graham, the DC, which I think is a big thing for Maxx.”
Last year, Crosby threatened a trade request if Pierce wasn’t hired as the full time head coach.
The only subtle messages from Crosby this year have revolved around defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and D-line coach Rob Leonard. Crosby definitely wanted both of them back and he fished his wish for the second year in a row.
Graham reportedly turned down a contract extension from the Raiders before the 2024 season, and he was expected to be one of the most coveted defensive coaches in this year’s hiring cycle.
One of the teams interested in Graham as a head coaching and defensive coordinator candidate was the Jacksonville Jaguars, who ultimately settled on former Buccaneers OC Liam Coen to be their head coach.
According to league insider Josina Anderson, the Jaguars then turned to Graham to fill their vacant defensive coordinator position, but Graham had already reached a verbal agreement to return to the Raiders.
“Thursday morning I heard from additional league sources telling me that Graham actually continued to be in demand through the negotiations of his deal to return to Las Vegas —as Jacksonville still attempted to insert last minute persuasions to make him a Jaguar,” Anderson reported on Friday.
Does Russell Wilson prefer to stay in Pittsburgh?
There have been rumblings that Wilson might be on the fast track to being the Raiders’ next QB1, but it sounds like the veteran quarterback is focusing right now on finding a way to stay with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I’m looking forward to hopefully going back to the Steelers and we’ll see what happens with the rest. I love it in Pittsburgh,” Wilson told Mark Long of the Associated Press.
“Pete’s going to be a great coach, obviously. He’s great at what he does. But I’m focused on the Steelers.”
Pete Carroll knows the rebuild isn’t going to happen overnight.
Raiders flagship radio host ‘JT the Brick’ pointed out this week that Carroll has been talking like a coach expecting to win games right away.
That was JT’s read on Carroll’s press conference and he talked about it on his weekday radio show on the team’s flagship radio station.
“These guys [have] got to have a great off season. They’ve got to thread the needle,” JT said on his Raider Nation Radio show on Tuesday. “I had a couple of big takeaways yesterday, but the biggest one was Pete [Carroll] pretty much telling us ‘No, no, no. We’re getting this done now.’ This wasn’t about a two [or] three year plan. This is not about three years with the fourth year option, and maybe getting it right at the end. This wouldn’t be worth it to him.”
But Yahoo and FOX Sports radio host Jason Fitz had a little different take on Carroll’s message.
“There was one thing in the press conference, that I read different than the rest of the world. And I’ve read everything that everybody’s talking about. When people kept talking about Pete Carroll making it clear, he’s gonna win right now, I read that portion of the press conference much different than everybody else,” Fitz said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate this week.
“What Pete to me was saying… just reading his words, was we understand we’ve got work to do on this whole roster to make this whole roster better, and we’re not gonna make it just about getting a quarterback. We’re gonna have to increase the level of play of everybody else,” Fitz continued.
“To me… a lot of people have taken him saying, we’re gonna do it right now, as him saying, we intend to win right now. But the beginning of [his] statement was, it took two or three years everywhere we were to build it the right way. Now, we’re gonna try to win right now. To me, what he was doing in that moment was managing everybody, mine, yours, everybody listening. He was managing the expectations.”
Crosby seems to be happy with the Carroll hire.
Crosby talked about Carroll on his January 28 episode of The Rush and he seemed to like the vision Carroll has for the Raiders.
“Just a ton of great energy in the room,” Crosby said of his time with Carroll. “It was finally good to talk to Pete. I got to talk to him before he got hired; he was actually here for an interview. I got to run into him and Mark [Davis] and got to chop it up with them, and then today, I got to spend a little more time with him. Not a ton, but we got to talk a little bit more and chop it up.”
“Also, John Spytek, the new GM as well, he texted me right away when he got hired. We’ve had some cool conversations today; I got to meet their families and just hear kind of what the vision is and what the plan is moving forward. So, I got to hear a little bit. I’m looking forward to talking more. We could all sit down and do that; looking forward to that. It was great. Everybody aligned, even the new additions to the front office and ownership.”
x: @raidersbeat
Tom Brady is a clown. He wouldn’t know how to run an organization in his wildest dreams.
This is the same idiot who made commercials telling everyone to invest in FTX.
He has no business being in charge of the operations of an NFL team and his decisions will end up being disastrous.
Your comment is ignorant hyperbole at its best. Brady might be many things, but a clown isn’t one of them.
Brady IS a rookie at running an NFL team. That said, Raider fans should be suspect on how the team will turnout with an inexperienced guy running the football operations! That’s how I’m reading PhillyRaider’s comment. But, I’m just happy that Mark isn’t making the HC or GM hires.
You can read it anyway you like but calling Brady a clown was ludicrous.
Ignorant hyperbole? This is the same retard who lost us Ben Johnson because he wanted his college buddy to be the GM.
The result of that was the Raiders naming Joe Biden head coach.
A coach who won’t be around to fulfill his 3 year contract. Remember that.
Johnson was never coming here (his agent admitted it) and I think that’s a good thing, we didn’t need another neophyte HC, who by accounts, is rather introverted.
Johnson and his agent wrote off the Raiders from jump (no QB and extreme dysfunction) he only even agreed to interview because of Brady’s presence.
Carroll has beaten all the other HCs in our division several times and this team will be well prepared for every game. We needed someone to build this organization for the long term and Carroll has done this. Yes, calling Brady a clown was hyperbole at it’s finest.
What team has Brady built? Name one.
Carroll is so good now, Seattle let him go for nothing.
Bevell, his rumored choice for OC, had the last ranked offense in the entire league the last time he was an OC.
Again, Brady is making all the decisions.
How confident are you, honestly, about a 74 year old head coach that was just shown the door by Seattle and who’s picking an OC who was the worst in the league the last time he held that position?
With a glorified celebrity in Brady making all the decisions with absolutely no experience in running anything.
This is a clown show. Because Mark Davis doesn’t have the first clue.
Dude, you need to chill out. You sound like a kid playing a video game. You’re disrespecting two GREATS. Brady is an OWNER! How many football organizations have football guy running things, much less one of the greatest to ever do it? You act like Ben Johnson is Elvis. Brady is a retard? You got issues. Carroll is Joe Biden. You got major issues.
I’m pumped at what’s going on. I try not to engage with the village idiots but you’re going to far.
In the Bills KC game I’m am astounded that on the 4th down play that was deemed short did anyone notice the KC defensive line was lined up off sides before the snap. Clear as day and of coarse no call.