As a minority stake owner of the Raiders, Tom Brady is entering a new phase of his career and some of his comments in recent weeks about not drafting Shedeur Sanders have taken a lot of criticism.
“I wasn’t a part of any evaluation process,” Brady said of the Raiders decision to not draft Sanders.
“I actually texted Shedeur because I know him very well and I said ‘Dude, whatever happens, wherever you go, that’s your first day. Day 2 matters more than the draft. I was [pick] 199. Who could speak on it better than me? Use that as motivation. You’re going to get your chances. Go take advantage of them.’”
Considering GM John Spytek had already said the Raiders would be leaning on Brady as part of their quarterback evaluations, it hasn’t been a believable story Brady is selling.
ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio said Brady was “full of sh–” for taking no ownership of the team’s decision to pass on Shedeur, and Skip Bayless was the latest voice of reason on the matter.
“The [Raiders] would be absolute fools not to ask Tom Brady about quarterbacks. I mean, Brady is the obvious GOAT. How many times have I said that on the airways over the last ten years?” Bayless asked on The Skip Bayless Show.
“Which quarterback was the most debated quarterback in any draft ever? That was Deion’s son, Shedeur, the same quarterback Tom Brady mentored and coached since he was a sophomore in high school. So, Tom Brady wants us to believe that his good friend Spytek, who also was an executive with the Bucs when he was down in Tampa, wouldn’t ask him, as a Raiders owner, one thing about Shedeur? Yeah, right, Tom, and you didn’t fumble on that Tuck rule play and maybe cost Al Davis a Super Bowl.”
“Come on, man. Nobody knew more about Shedeur than you did, Tom,” Bayless continued. “That’s tangibly and intangibly. He spent so much time around the kid. And let’s just fess up to it. He obviously vetoed that kid to Spytek. I mean, the Raiders passed on Shedeur seven times before Cleveland owner Jimmy Haslam overruled his executives and his coaches and Haslam took Shedeur with the 144th overall pick in the fifth round.”
Where Bayless might be wrong in his commentary, though, was the idea that Spytek had to be vetoed on Sanders.
For the same reasons everyone else passed on Sanders, there’s a good chance Spytek and Brady were in agreement on how to approach Shedeur going into the draft. But for reasons we can only speculate about, no one in the NFL wants their name tied to a negative story around the Sanders family.
Where Bayless was probably right, though, was the idea that Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam almost definitely forced his personnel department to draft Sanders two rounds after taking Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
But to his credit, Haslam is getting exactly what he was looking for in Shedeur.
Three weeks ago, no one cared about the Browns. Now they’re on the first page of just about every NFL news source on the web.
Do you know when Tom’s lying? His mouth is moving!
Skip who?
Shady will be a Raider by June 1st. He unfortunately is the odd man out. All of the qb’s on the roster will beat him out. The browns will trade him to the Raiders for a 2026 7th round pick. A little compensation is better than a release. Goodbye Bradley you are done.