Are the Jacksonville Jaguars still in the running for Ben Johnson?
According to league insider Josina Anderson, Johnson still has interest in Jacksonville, and she laid out the argument that he should choose the Jaguars over the Raiders in a recent Bovada column.
“A league source says Johnson still has interest in exploring the opportunity in Jacksonville and inquiries are still being made for his staff and personnel template,” Anderson reported on Thursday, adding that she wonders if Brady will become a difficult decision making in the building to work with.
“How long before the experience with Brady turns from awesome to potentially meddlesome?” Anderson continued. “Working with Brady in ownership could result in a match made in heaven. However, judging off current instincts, I currently think owner Shad Khan is less likely to impede Johnson’s process of building a football operation in his own vision. Additionally, Khan could still modify his current personnel structure to increase Johnson’s comfort.”
There have been plenty of accounts praising Brady’s involvement in Las Vegas, but this is the first it’s been discussed that he might become too involved.
Every indication has been that Johnson is strongly leaning toward accepting the Raiders job, but he cannot be hired until the Lions are eliminated from the playoffs. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said this week that the consensus around the league is that the Raiders are essentially holding the job for Johnson until that happens.
“The people who are associated with the Raiders job, I’m talking other candidates, I’m talking agents, people are the NFL, there does seem to be an acknowledgement that Ben Johnson is the leading candidate [in Las Vegas] and there a lot of people who, frankly, think he is getting it,” Rapoport reported on Wednesday.
“They are not done. They certainly have not done the requirements that would allow them to hire a coach and he’s not even able to be officially hired until after the season,” Rapoport continued. “But it does seem like that is the direction that it is headed.”
The Raiders might be the heavy favorite to get Johnson, but the longer he has to consider his options, it’s always possible that he could change his mind.
It happened to the Commanders a year ago, and the possibility exists that it could happen to the Raiders. While we wait and watch, there have been plenty of NFL media types who have questioned why Johnson would choose the Raiders over some of his other options.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter has been on a crusade against the Raiders since Antonio Pierce was fired and his comments this week were some of the sharpest to come from anyone since AP was fired.
On Schefter’s podcast, the idea was mentioned that the Raiders could find a quarterback and potentially have a “Commanders-like jump” in the win column.
The NFL’s most decorated insider wasn’t having it.
“I don’t mean to be a pessimist. I don’t believe that is possible. I just don’t believe it,” Schefter said. “Jayden Daniels is one of these generational quarterbacks. You’re not finding that guy in the draft this year and you don’t even have the draft pick to do it.”
“Jayden Daniels is one of these generational quarterbacks. You’re not finding that guy in the draft this year, and you don’t even have the draft pick to do it,” Schefter continued. “By the way, that’s why last year, it’s why the Raiders had such an interest in trying to see if they could trade for Jayden Daniels,” Schefter continued. “But by the way, matter of fact, they never made the call at all. They never even tried to get that trade done. A lot of speculation about it. More in the media than within the teams themselves. The Raiders never called about Jayden Daniels.”
x: @raidersbeat
Ben Johnson is going to disappoint everyone, of course he’s a hot commodity now I would be to if I had the best roster in the NFL let’s see how he does in Jacksonville when GM Trent Baalke starts giving him players or garbage Trevor Lawrence on the field decisions
Just another hater sounding off!