Raiders owner Mark Davis confirmed that Tom Brady and John Spytek will be leading the team’s search for a new head coach, and the announcement was celebrated by some as a resolution the broken power structure that was on display in 2025.
With Pete Carroll no longer in the building, Brady and Spytek are once again the two biggest power brokers on the football side of operations, but as Yahoo insider Charles Robinson pointed out, the power structure in Las Vegas hasn’t necessarily been fixed.
Because of Brady’s unique role in the organization, Robinson believes the Raiders need to lean on Spytek now more than ever.
From his Tuesday column at Yahoo, Robinson said the most important decision maker in the Raiders’ building actually needs to be in the building…
“What [Monday’s announcement] won’t resolve is what some across the league believe is a flawed design: Brady’s operational involvement from afar, rather than as a daily presence inside the building alongside Spytek and Davis. Instead, the franchise is selling change as a “close collaboration” between Spytek and Brady when it comes to the Las Vegas football operations and finding the team’s next head coach. That still won’t draw Brady into the traditional boots-on-the-ground presence of most other high-ranking NFL decision makers.
That statement from the Raiders does publicly draw Brady more into the team’s fold when it comes to bearing responsibility for decisions that come next. The Carroll failure? That won’t be pinned to Brady. Nor will the Kelly failure, despite Kelly himself pointing to Brady as the ownership element that drew him toward the Raiders. But the fate of this next hire will go on Brady’s résumé as an owner-executive. It will also amplify the accountability on Spytek and Brady. More than ever, they’re a tandem.
Yet only Spytek will be around every day, observing the rhythms of the building, overseeing the minute-to-minute grind, absorbing the granular details of what can be the difference between success and failure. That reality should force a recalibration of who is really being tapped to lead the Raiders to a revival. For a while, we’ve speculated that Brady would be that difference maker. The belief existed because Davis alluded to his addition as having that kind of gravity.
But there’s an argument to be made that Spytek will be the most important piece in all of this, especially once he begins working side-by-side with the head coach whom he and Brady have been charged with finding. Once that coach is in place, Spytek is the one who will have the most consistent contact with him. Not to mention working with Davis on a day-to-day basis. All while Brady’s bandwidth continues to be divided between his analyst job with Fox Sports and his family on the other side of the country in Miami.”
Within a few weeks, the Raiders will have a new head coach considering how the season played out with Carroll, there’s a good chance Brady and Spytek are going to want to hire a head coach that cooperates with them (for better or worse) a little better than Carroll.
Based on reports in recent weeks, Spytek was somewhat of the odd man out in the Raiders’ three-headed monster of decision makers in 2025, and the hope is that Spytek will fill that void if Brady doesn’t plan to be in Las Vegas in a full-time role.
It will be interesting to see who the Raiders hire as their next head coach and, ultimately, it will be fascinating to see if the situation that developed between Carroll and his bosses turns up again with the next head coach.
x: @raidersbeat
Jim Gray? Tom Brady? Mark Davis?
Those three names are the epitome of flawed in their current status.
The Broncos were positive that John Elway was the future off field leader. They were wrong. Brady is an ex NFL quarterback without a resume as an off field leader. I vote for Mark to sell the team to an owner that will depend on a proven leader and not dilute control decisions by letting Brady meddle in the operation.