New Report Points Mike Vrabel to the Raiders

Antonio Pierce is still the head coach of the Raiders and despite consecutive wins, signs are still pointing toward Pierce being fired at the end of the season.

In November, one of the first coaching candidates to be linked to the Raiders was Mike Vrabel and it sounds like the former Titans head coach is still the front-runner to replace Pierce if he is fired.

According to Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer, there are “plenty of well-connected folks” who view Vrabel as the top candidate for the Raiders’ HC job if it becomes available.

“Mark Davis will listen to Brady’s counsel on where Pierce has taken the program and where things should go,” Breer reported on Monday. “There are plenty of well-connected folks who believe Vrabel would be the front-runner for that job. In fact, last year, when Brady showed up at the team’s final practice of the season, some internally took it as a sign that a run at Vrabel, who hadn’t yet been fired in Tennessee, could be on the way.”

If you are interested in connecting dots, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky recently said he believes Vrabel already has a good idea of where he is going to coach next year.

”I think Vrabel is spoken for,” Orlovsky said on the Pat McAfee Show last week.

”I think that Vrabel has got a very clear… path to where he going to be likely coaching,” Orlovsky continued. “I think there is a vision for where he likely ends up coaching next year. I’m not a reporter. I’ve come on your show before and I’ve said I heard something and it got me in a lot of trouble, so I’m trying not to do that.”

At the time of Orlovsky’s comments, many believed he was talking about Ohio State or the New England Patriots, but a New York Post report suggested the more likely destination for Vrabel is the Raiders because of his connection to Tom Brady.

“I think Vrabel is heading for the Raiders,” New York insider Brian Costello said on the Gang’s All Here podcast. “That would be my prediction right now is that he’s going to the Raiders because I think the Tom Brady connection there will be strong. That’s where the murmurings in the league have him going. Las Vegas.”

The Raiders aren’t going to make a decision on Pierce’s future until after the season, but all the momentum seems to be moving in the direction of a coaching change coming in Las Vegas.

The one development that could push the Raiders toward keeping Pierce for another year would be a scenario where the team feels like they wouldn’t be able to land their top candidate after parting ways with Pierce.

It’s fair to wonder if Sports Illustrated’s Hondo Carpenter might have been referring to a scenario like that on his daily podcast last week.

“I can tell you that I’ve been told by enough people who know Tom very well, if [Antonio Pierce] is terminated, he knows exactly who’s coming in,” Carpenter said of Brady on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast. “Now they’ll have to go through all the rules of interviewing a bunch of people, but he’ll know who he’s bringing in.”

There was no mention of Vrabel in Carpenter’s comments, but with all the noise around Brady, Vrabel and the Raiders, it feels like it’s safe to fill in the blanks.

Every indication is that Pierce and Raiders owner Mark Davis have a good relationship, so Davis might not be in a hurry to fire his head coach. But if Vrabel is an option, it sounds like he might be the head coach Brady would like to see on the sideline next year.

And one final note that we’ve pointed out several times in the last few weeks…

Back in November, Pro Football Post reported that Pierce was not Brady’s first choice to be the team’s head coach this year.

With all the rumors swirling around the Raiders and their coaching situation, that’s definitely a relevant detail if it happens to be true.

x: @raidersbeat