For more than a week, the headlines around the Raiders’ head coaching search have revolved around Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first reported the momentum between Johnson and the Raiders after his virtual interview with the team nine days ago. Since then, Johnson has widely been considered the front runner for the Raiders’ job.
But on Friday the narrative around Johnson and the Raiders shifted a little. ESPN’s Adam Schefter said he won’t believe Johnson is headed to the Raiders until he sees it, and NBC’s Mike Florio piggybacked on that idea the next day.
“As the fruits of the NFL grapevine nearly burst with rumors linking Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the Raiders, there’s a far more simple (and far less juicy) reality. He’s still very early in the process of making a decision about next year,” Florio reported on Saturday at ProFootballTalk.
“As one source with knowledge of the situation explains it, the effort remains squarely in ‘phase one.’ Information is being gathered on Johnson’s behalf, while Johnson fully focuses on his current job — preparing to face the Commanders tonight in a divisional-round playoff game.”
Shortly after Florio’s report on Johnson, the Lions lost 45-31 to the Commanders, so the timeline on Johnson’s decision has presumably moved forward.
The Raiders and other teams can now hold in-person interviews with Johnson and the expectation is that those interviews will happen this week.
The Bears and Jaguars are believed to still be in the mix for Johnson, but his interest in those teams hasn’t been much of a talking point in the last two weeks.
Schefter made the strongest argument for Johnson potentially choosing the Bears and he couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around the idea of a coach choosing the Raiders over the Bears.
For Schefter, it been a few days of out-of-character reporting from one of the league’s most-respected insiders. He clearly has some level of animosity toward the Raiders and has repeatedly broken one of his journalistic rules.
As Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers pointed out this week on his podcast, Schefter has a long history of only reporting the facts and not letting personal feelings infiltrate his reporting.
“Look, I work for ESPN. I’ve had Adam Schefter on the show before. I know what Shefty’s all about. Shefty does not give opinions. He just doesn’t,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast.
“What Schefter does is deliver the news. He gives you what he knows, and that’s what he does. And even when we had him on the show, they say, ‘Hey, don’t ask him his opinion on things because he doesn’t like to do that.’ He likes to just give the facts. Just put it out there. He likes to report.”
But based on the tone of his reporting this week, no one in mainstream sports media will be more disappointed than Schefter if Johnson ends up joining the Raiders.
x: @raidersbeat
The Raiders should take a Hard Look at the History of Success by “Genius” OC’s and DC’s in their First Head Job!!!! This team does not need another failed attempt by Hiring the Shiny Newest Prospect. How about Pete Carroll or Washington OC Kliff Kingsbury (turned around a Horrible Franchise, as Head Coach, with a Midget QB – sond familiar?) His offensive Chops go with out Question now I would think. I doubt that Ben Johnson is the answer other than Making MD throw away even a Bigger Chunk of Money on a Unknown Prospect.
We’ll see, it seems MD & The RAIDERS have their mind made up on the new HC, I just hope it works, been a fan way too long to deal with these horrible seasons, it’s time to start winning, on a consistent basis
The Raiders have more money
We’ve never seen Kingsbury coach without a talented QB. Mahomes at Texas Tech, Murray in Arizona, Caleb Williams when he was passing game coordinator at SC. I wouldn’t object, as long as big time DC was hired too, say maybe Saleh. Kind of the same way I feel about Ben Johnson.