Ed Graney: Tom Brady might be the only person who can save the Raiders
Published in Football
LAS VEGAS — The Raiders’ latest loss was nearly over, and the Cowboys lined up to mercifully take a knee with 2 1/2 minutes remaining. And a yellow flag came out.
The Raiders were called for having too many men on the field.
I wondered: Had minority owner Tom Brady stayed to watch or had he slinked out of Allegiant Stadium in shame?
It was before “Monday Night Football” kicked off — before the Cowboys and their home crowd enjoyed a 33-16 victory — when the Raiders tweeted a picture of Brady walking into the stadium.
He was wearing a Raiders jacket. He also wore a wry smile and some pretty jazzy spectacles.
Then he witnessed through those glasses yet another defeat, the eighth in 10 games for the Raiders this season.
Brady needs to be more involved because his isn’t a role that can be done with one foot in the pool.
And perhaps all this losing will spur him to do just that because his fingerprints are also all over this debacle.
Yes. He was involved in building whatever you want to call the 2025 season. He’s not void of responsibility.
But this team needs a louder voice. A clearer vision. Pete Carroll might have been hired as coach to lift the Raiders’ floor, but they need someone now to lift the floor and ceiling.
And that someone should be Brady, or what’s the point?
Must be all in
Problem: You can’t do such a job, or at least do it well, on a part-time basis. Hey, it’s not like anybody is trying to steal his millions of dollars from a TV gig, but it’s not the same when you’re learning things about an organization’s daily habits second hand.
Phone calls and Zoom meetings aren’t as productive as being around personally. He needs to be fully committed because he might be the one who can fix a lot of the problems.
The man does not lack intelligence.
Heck, he’s allowed in the building. It’s not like he has to wait outside for an invitation. He’s an owner of the team. He can be here as much as he wants.
This shouldn’t just be an offseason job for him.
Brady made a push for former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as coach before he took the Bears job. Brady also met with Matthew Stafford when the Rams gave the quarterback permission to seek a trade.
Neither outcome came in favor of the Raiders, but they were the kind of moves Brady can at least try to orchestrate. Maybe one or two fall his way the next time.
He couldn’t have been happy with what he saw Monday, yet another anemic performance by one of the NFL’s worst offenses.
To that end, it has been debated whether offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was a Brady hire or one Carroll made himself.
Either way, things haven’t worked on that side of the ball, either with Kelly calling plays or quarterback Geno Smith trying to execute them.
“Make plays when they need to be made,” Smith said Monday. “That’s really all it comes down to. It’s a tough game. It’s the NFL. There’s great players all over the field.”
The other teams just have more than the Raiders. Something else Brady surely knows.
It’s fair to wonder how Brady might do should he make his voice more heard. Just because you can read defenses and throw touchdown passes and own a bunch of shiny rings doesn’t make one a great owner.
But he’s also the Raiders’ best chance of somehow climbing out of what has become an annual funk. An annual existence of trying to win games when the focus should be on rebuilding.
Nothing new
Perhaps the embarrassment of this season will prompt Brady to do more. Be around more. Take charge more.
He needs to be more involved if there was (or is?) a disconnect between the coaching side and the personnel department.
It’s obvious this hasn’t worked for a long time.
It hasn’t just begun.
It might be the longest of shots. Brady might be fine with how things are when comparing his TV life to that as a minority owner. But his role as it stands isn’t enough. He needs to be far more involved.
He saw it again Monday.
If those jazzy spectacles actually work, he knows the reality. And no glasses are going to make this look pretty.
He needs to step up or the Raiders will continue to not get the best version of him. And then what’s the point?
____
©2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.







Comments