Tom Brady is officially a minority owner of the Raiders, but it still isn’t clear what his role within the organization is going to be.
What we do know, though, is that his role is going to be significant.
That’s been the expectation from the time Brady was welcomed to the team in October and, if anything, it might end up that we are underestimating what how big his impact is going to be.
Based on a report from The Athletic‘s Dianna Russini this week, it sounds like Brady is going to have as strong a voice within the organization as Mark Davis, and maybe even a bigger voice in terms of football operations.
“While Brady is busy broadcasting for Fox and may have only 10 percent equity in the Raiders, I expect his involvement in running the team to be closer to 90 percent,” Russini reported this week. “We already know the organization wants to lean on Brady when picking a future quarterback. One of Davis’s strengths is his openness to listening to experienced football people, and he values Brady’s understanding of what it takes to win at a high level.”
Just days after Brady’s ownership stake was announced, former Raiders’ fullback Marcel Reece hinted to the role he expects Brady to have with the team.
“Mark [Davis] does nothing without a ton of thought involved in it and this was a long time coming. It took a lot of time and effort for this to happen and come to fruition,” Reece said on the Jim Rome Show in October.
“I’ll say this,” he continued. “I think that Tom is going to be able to be as hands on as Tom wants to. Mark doesn’t want figureheads. He doesn’t need figureheads. What he wants and desires is success… especially right now, even in the immediate… who better to evaluate any quarterback than the greatest quarterback to ever play the game.”
As an owner, Brady can’t have an official title in football operations, but he can overhaul the building with personnel hires that will listen to him.
What that might mean for head coach Antonio Pierce and GM Tom Telesco is still to be determined, but there’s a good chance both will be replaced at the end of the season.
If Pierce is fired, it will be interesting to see who Brady would choose as the next head coach. Brady was instrumental in getting Josh McDaniels to the Raiders, so he can only get better from that decision.
For now, Pierce is the boss in Las Vegas and we’ll see on Sunday if the team still has some fight left for their head coach.
Last year, Pierce brought the locker room together in the second half of the season and earned the full-time job. This year, he might need an even better finish to save his job.
x: @raidersbeat
So what happens if Tom wants Sanders and Telesco wants Ward?
Who is the GM here?
Great, the team is struggling with a HC in training, and now we welcome a defacto GM in training, Brady. Brady doesn’t have experience running a HS football team much less an NFL team. Only the Raiders! SMH…
Tom mark the best coach right now y’all should go after is Marcus freeman
“Greatess of all time” my a$$…that doesnt mean Brady is the rosetta stone for championships,
Let’s be real. This is another example of Davis leaning on someone he considers a friend. Will Brady actually improve things? He doesn’t have any experience in scouting or personnel. The vast majority of his career was spent in a place where the system of doing things hasn’t been successfully replicated despite numerous attempts, including the Raiders’ own shot at the Patriots way. Brady was reportedly an advocate of McDaniels.
That said, if you’re asking whether I’d rather have Brady with influence than Ken Herock, Jim Gray, Hue Jackson and the parade of former players, well…. yeah. And if the Mike Vrabel rumors are true, Vrabel has probably been the most successful guy in terms of being a former Patriot. I thought he did a really good job with Tennessee.