After being fired by the Ravens on Tuesday, John Harbaugh became the top head coaching candidate in this year’s pool, and the Raiders would presumably be interesting in talking to him.
That being said, Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter doesn’t believe Harbaugh would be a good fit in Las Vegas, in large part because of the leadership structure in place.
“I think John Harbaugh is a very good coach. I am not convinced that he would be a good fit for the Raiders,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“That’s not because I don’t think he’s a good coach. I think he’s a great coach. I don’t know that he would fit the leadership style that the Raiders have adopted. I don’t think he’d have a problem with [John] Spytek. I don’t see him and Brady and the Brady dynamic working. That’s not a slam on Tom. It’s not a slam on John. But he’s been in the league wrong enough. I don’t think he needs to nor will he tolerate a high level of involvement in the leading of his team.”
With the news on Thursday morning that Mike McDaniel has been fired by the Dolphins, there is rampant speculation that Harbaugh could be headed to Miami.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport connected Harbaugh to the Dolphins within 10 minutes of the news that McDaniel had been fired, and it probably wasn’t a shot in the dark on his part.
As for the Raiders, it seems like they are going to prioritize staying away from a head coach that doesn’t allow Spytek to have the role of a conventional general manager. Tom Brady will play heavily into major decisions, but it was obvious from the outside that Pete Carroll made more than a few personnel decisions for the team in 2025.
Just a guess, but look for the Raiders to settle on an offensive-minded head coach who doesn’t have the clout to challenge Spytek as the no. 2 authority in the building.
A handful of candidates that might fit that description would be Klint Kubiak, Davis Webb (who met with the Raiders on Wednesday), Matt Nagy and potentially Kevin Stefanski,
x: @raidersbeat
I’d rather go with kubiak.
Exactly. No more dated retread HC. We just got rid of one!
Hey, Mark. Just hire Hondo to run the Raiders. Hondo knows everything Raiders-just ask him.
Challenge Spytek??
If you can get a Harbaugh you make Spytek expendable. Tommy’s buddy’s and himself can pound salt.
The Ravens have a professional, well structured front office with responsibilities clearly laid out. Harbaugh is the HC, not their GM, he has input but he does not draft players.
Making a HC a combo GM in today’s NFL is destined to fail IMO.
And repeat the same mistake Mark makes over and over? He keeps chasing the names at HC and then lets them pick their faithful lemming at GM. This doesn’t work for a majority of HCs. The skillset needed to manage a teams roster and contracts, always with an eye towards the long term, is at odds with most HCs need to win now. This short sighted, sell the future mind set puts teams in cap hell after a few years. I’d they don’t win a super bowl in the small window it’s a waste.
Parcels was one of the few that could pull it off because he was always forward thinking. He was notorious for selling his top players at the end of their peak age for a max return in picks. That’s what gave them the continuity for over a decade. Those teams always had a top 5 OL and D, which is how championships are won.
And McDaniel as the OC
McDaniel for HC!
I agree with Hondo, Harbaugh is a great coach and great coaches need to run the team and know when to get intervention from upstairs! I believe the Tom Brady involvement in the Raiders is and will be the complete downfall and collapse of the Raiders. As long as Brady has a say in coaches and players the Raiders will be in disarray. Tom may be a nice person but trying to make the Raiders a duplicate of his playing days the patriot way is a dynamic that will not work! Unfortunately Mark Davis is not football savvy enough to put a stop to the Brady plan, which makes this a very sad situation.
I agree with Hondo, Harbaugh is a great coach and great coaches need to run the team and know when to get intervention from upstairs! I believe the Tom Brady involvement in the Raiders is and will be the complete downfall and collapse of the Raiders. As long as Brady has a say in coaches and players the Raiders will be in disarray. Tom may be a nice person but trying to make the Raiders a duplicate of his playing days the patriot way is a dynamic that will not work! Unfortunately Mark Davis is not football savvy enough to put a stop to the Brady plan, which makes this a very sad situation.
Holding my breath that Brady doesn’t screw this very important draft up!
No doubt me too!
Tom Brady is going to be a problem for the raiders to get a good HC. They will see the BS that they will have to deal with in Brady, and no good coach worth of crap will take the job. Only losers like Vance Joseph and some other scrubs would take the job
No to Harbaugh, he’s dated. We need a young er offensive minded coach to work with our young QB, plus if we go with a defensive HC our OC will only get poached by another team if we start winning. Harbaugh had the Ravens trending downwards, we don’t need to make the mistake of selecting a coach based on past success.