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Raiders Preparing Big Ben Johnson Offer?

January 16th, 2025 at 11:56pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Bears and Jaguars have superior quarterback situations to the Raiders, who have a major question to answer entering the offseason, and Ben Johnson has been one of the choosiest coordinators in recent memory. As Chicago and Jacksonville remain in the mix for Johnson, buzz persists about Detroit’s OC giving strong consideration to the Raiders.

Tom Brady‘s presence has driven this, with Mark Davis giving the quarterback-turned-announcer/part-owner a significant say — perhaps the lead voice — as the team searches again for a new head coach and general manager. Brady has had his eye on Johnson for a while, beginning an effort to bring him to Las Vegas when covering the Lions in Week 9.

The more aggressive stage of this recruitment began last Thursday, the same day the Raiders fired Tom Telesco, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio notes. While not confirming Johnson called for the Raiders to fire their GM, Florio lends more in the direction of Johnson wanting “alignment” as he determines a potential landing spot. The reporting coming out of the Telesco firing had Brady playing the lead role, determining Telesco needed to go to bring in the team’s next HC and GM on the same timeline.

It is unlikely Johnson’s desire for alignment and Brady’s determination the Raiders needed to start fresh is a coincidence, and Florio adds the Raiders may have already dangled a “massive” offer to the three-year Lions play-caller. The Raiders have not yet met Johnson face-to-face, with only virtual interviews allowed with candidates tied to other teams until Jan. 20. The team cannot meet with Johnson until the Lions are eliminated (or the Super Bowl bye week, if Detroit books its first Super Bowl berth), but Brady is still with FOX and is set to call the Commanders-Lions divisional-round game Saturday night. This conflict of interest could benefit the Raiders, as the analyst certainly could make a point to speak with the high-profile coordinator.

Davis is not among the league’s wealthiest owners, but he did authorize a 10-year, $100MM Jon Gruden contract in 2018. Johnson was also linked to a $15MM-per-year salary ask during the 2024 offseason. Coaching salaries are not public, but Jim Harbaugh and Sean Payton are believed to be earning between $15-$20MM and are classified as top-five-salaried HCs (or in that ballpark). The Raiders’ QB situation and their struggles finding a coach during Davis’ ownership tenure may required a monster offer near this neighborhood, even if Johnson has not proven a successful head coach yet like Payton and Harbaugh have.

The Raiders cannot match the Jaguars or Bears’ QB setups just yet, and Davis has Brady set to play perhaps the lead role — especially now that Telesco’s gone — in fixing the roster’s biggest problem. Las Vegas hold the No. 6 overall pick. The team also faces Harbaugh, Payton and the two-time reigning champion Chiefs twice a year; it went 0-6 in those games this season. For Johnson to turn down the Commanders and give this much consideration to the Raiders certainly would appear to show Brady’s impact on this process. Other candidates remain in play for the Raiders, but everything to this point suggests Johnson is the clear favorite.

Ben Johnson ‘Seriously Considering’ Raiders; Latest On Tom Brady’s Impact

January 15th, 2025 at 11:13pm CST by Sam Robinson

The NFL has placed significant restrictions on Tom Brady during his time as a broadcaster. Since the future Hall of Fame quarterback is now part-owner of the Raiders, he is prohibited from speaking attending practices, traveling to clubs’ facilities or doing onsite interview prep with coaches ahead of broadcast assignments.But a loophole may influence the Raiders’ coaching search.

Brady will be in Detroit for FOX’s divisional-round game (Commanders-Lions), and he would have a chance to both closely evaluate Ben Johnson (and Lions DC Aaron Glenn) and continue speaking with a coach who looks to be — at this juncture, at least — the Raiders’ early favorite.

Raiders-Johnson momentum is building, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore. Clearly residing as a frontrunner here, Johnson is “seriously considering” the Raiders, The Athletic’s Vic Tafur notes. In predicting fits, Yahoo.com’s Charles Robinson placed Johnson in Vegas.

While Mark Davis is technically atop the organization, it is widely believed Brady is running the team’s HC and GM pursuits. A report pointed to this search being “Tom’s show,” and Tafur offers more in that direction by adding that the minority owner was heavily involved in the decisions to fire Antonio Pierce and Tom Telesco last week. Telesco was ultimately canned because the Raiders wanted to start fresh rather than pair a new coach with a holdover GM.

It is abnormal for a part-owner to have this much influence in searches of this magnitude, but Brady’s stature in the game makes him a special case. The 47-year-old exec’s presence is believed to have driven Johnson to add the Raiders to his interview list. The Lions’ OC has been picky about jobs since first joining a coaching carousel in 2023, and he famously backed out as the Commanders’ frontrunner last year. For Johnson to then be open to taking a Raiders job despite the lack of a quarterback presence and considering Davis’ lack of patience with coaches in recent years, it would certainly say a lot about Brady’s ability to recruit.

Las Vegas may be eyeing a Detroit-centric plan, with Tafur adding Commanders assistant GM Lance Newmark is believed to have an early leg up on the competition for the GM job. This would be an interesting development, as Newmark has not received an interview request just yet. Packers exec Jon-Eric Sullivan, Steelers staffer Sheldon White and ex-Brady Michigan teammate John Spytek — a Buccaneers assistant GM — are the interviewees thus far. Spytek held early momentum as a candidate to watch; Newmark making up ground would be interesting due to his history.

Although Newmark left for Washington in 2024, he spent more than 20 years as a Detroit exec. That obviously covers the time Johnson has spent with the franchise, and Tafur adds the Raiders view Newmark as a staffer who could pair well with the 38-year-old play-caller.

Brady began vetting Johnson when he did a Week 9 Lions-Packers broadcast, Tafur offers. This would obviously be an unusual way for a franchise to gather intel on a candidate, and it obviously calls Brady’s FOX role into question as far as objectivity goes. Considering the steam Johnson has gained with the Raiders, the ongoing Brady conflict-of-interest subplot will continue Saturday.

Johnson is still in play for the Bears and Jaguars’ jobs, and while it is not known if the teams have him as a favorite, Mike Vrabel being off the carousel leaves Johnson as the hottest candidate based on history and the Lions’ dominant season on offense. The Jags are believed to be heavily interested. Johnson cannot conduct any second interviews until a Super Bowl bye week, or if the Lions are eliminated earlier.

For Johnson to back out of the Commanders’ search only to join the Raiders would represents a borderline coup for Brady, and it would add even more intrigue to a division that has seen tremendous coaching talent join Andy Reid in recent years. Johnson would join Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh in the AFC West. The Raiders still have interviews to go through, and Johnson’s past should remind this is not a done deal. But this much noise about the situation is certainly interesting this early in the process.

2025 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker

January 15th, 2025 at 11:03pm CST by Sam Robinson

With the Cowboys and Mike McCarthy splitting up, seven teams have made coaching changes so far during this year’s cycle. Here are the candidates connected to each of the HC-needy franchises. If more teams make changes, they will be added to the list.

Updated 2-11-25 (11:40am CT)

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

Raiders Request Interviews With Giants’, Chargers’ Assistant GMs

January 15th, 2025 at 7:10pm CST by Ely Allen

The list of candidates for the Raiders‘ open general manager position continues to grow. After three interviews were requested or announced yesterday, the team requested two more interviews today. Earlier, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported that the Raiders were the latest team to request an interview with Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown, and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tagged on a request to interview Chargers assistant GM Chad Alexander, as well.

While he has yet to earn his first general manager position just yet, Brown is once again getting interest in a top job. Brown is one of the younger names you’ll see getting interviews in this cycle. He only broke into the NFL as a pro personnel intern for the Jets in 2012. In 2017, Brown got his big break, getting hired as assistant director of pro scouting in Philadelphia. After two years in the position, Brown was promoted to director of pro scouting and, two years later, was promoted as second time to director of player personnel. After only a year in that role, the Giants hired Brown away to become their assistant general manager in 2022.

Before he was hired by New York, he was interviewed in 2022 for the Vikings GM position that went to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. His meteoric rise stalled a bit in 2023, as he continued his job without further interviews, but last year, both the Panthers and Chargers booked him as a candidate for their open GM jobs, which eventually went to Dan Morgan and Joe Hortiz, respectively. Both teams even moved him on to the second round of interviews before making their decisions.

Alexander has been around a bit longer than Brown. He spent 20 seasons in Baltimore in a variety of roles, mostly in the personnel department under Ozzie Newsome. He followed Joe Douglas to the Jets, when Douglas was hired as GM, to serve as director of player personnel, a role Alexander held for five years in New York. When his other former coworker in Baltimore, Hortiz, was hired as GM in Los Angeles last year, he followed to take on his current role.

While Alexander has extensive experience in NFL front offices, having just completed his 26th season in the NFL, this is his first interview for a general manager position. If the Raiders are able to complete interviews with two of Brown, Alexander, and Steelers director of pro scouting Sheldon White, they will have satisfied the interview requirements of the Rooney Rule.

For now, both Brown and Alexander join a currently short list of Raiders’ candidates, though more candidates are expected to be announced. Here’s the full list of the team’s planned and requested interviews:

  • Chad Alexander, assistant general manager (Chargers): Interview requested
  • Brandon Brown, assistant general manager (Giants): Interview requested
  • Lance Newmark, assistant general manager (Commanders): Potential frontrunner?
  • John Spytek, assistant general manager (Buccaneers): To interview
  • Jon-Eric Sullivan, director of player personnel (Packers): Interview requested
  • Sheldon White, director of pro scouting (Steelers): Interview requested

Raiders Request GM Interview With Steelers Exec Sheldon White

January 14th, 2025 at 9:12pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Raiders have requested an interview with Steelers director of pro scouting Sheldon White, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

White is a former NFL cornerback who began his front office career as a scout for the Lions in 1997. He worked his way up to director of player personnel by 2000, earned a title bump to vice president in 2009, and even served as the interim general manager after the Lions fired Martin Mayhew in 2015. White then joined Michigan State University’s front office until 2020 when he returned to the NFL as a scout with the Commanders.

Steelers general manager Omar Khan hired White as the team’s director of pro scouting in 2022. Pittsburgh has gone 29-22 since then with two playoff appearances. (The Lions made the playoffs just twice during White’s 15 years leading their pro personnel team, though the team went 6-2 during his time as interim GM.)

The Steelers’ major free agency signings under White including Patrick Queen and Russell Wilson in 2024, Larry Ogunjobi and Isaac Seumalo in 2023, and James Daniels and Myles Jack in 2022. Queen and Wilson both played key roles in Pittsburgh’s playoff push this year. Daniels has struggled to stay healthy, but Ogunjobi and Seumalo have been solid contributors in the trenches. Jack’s tenure was interrupted by his first retirement.

White is the third official candidate for the Raiders’ general manager role. Here is a full list of their planned and requested interviews:

  • John Spytek, assistant general manager (Buccaneers): To interview
  • Jon-Eric Sullivan, director of player personnel (Packers): Interview requested
  • Sheldon White, director of pro scouting (Steelers): Interview requested

Raiders Request GM Interview With Jon-Eric Sullivan, To Meet With John Spytek

January 14th, 2025 at 9:48am CST by Adam La Rose

The Raiders have begun the process of seeking out candidates for their general manager vacancy. To no surprise, two of the names on the team’s radar are among the top options in this year’s hiring cycle.

Jon-Eric Sullivan has received an interview request, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports. The Packers’ director of player personnel also received a slip from the Jets as part of their ongoing search. More notably, Sullivan is also among the apparent finalists for the Titans’ GM gig. A second interview with Tennessee is on tap, something which is also the case with a number of other in-demand candidates.

Another name heavily connected to the Titans is that of Buccaneers assistant general manager John Spytek. He too has a second interview lined up, but the Raiders have arranged a meeting of their own. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times report Spytek will interview with Vegas as part of the team’s first round of meetings with candidates.

As a result of Spytek’s connection to Tom Brady given their time spent together at Michigan and again in Tampa Bay, he was floated as a potential candidate for the Raiders’ GM position. To no surprise, then, he has found himself in demand from two of the three teams seeking out a major front office hire. Up to this point, the Jets’ wide-ranging search process has not included contact with Spytek.

Having moved on from both head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco, the Raiders have a pair of major organizational decisions looming. Brady – along with veteran headhunter Jed Hughes – will be key figures in the process of filling those vacancies. Owner Mark Davis does not plan on repeating his ‘Patriot Way’ approach from the Josh McDaniels-Dave Ziegler era, so it will be interesting to see which new direction the franchise moves in on the sidelines and in the front office.

Raiders Request HC Interview With Broncos DC Vance Joseph

January 13th, 2025 at 10:33am CST by Adam La Rose

Another candidate has emerged for the Raiders’ head coaching vacancy. Vegas has requested an interview with Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.

This is not the first slip Joseph has received for the 2025 hiring cycle. The Jets put in a request to speak with him, and with the Broncos’ season now over Joseph will be free to meet with any interested teams. Bovada’s Josina Anderson reports Joseph’s New York interview will likely take place on Wednesday, while his Raiders meeting is expected to happen on Thursday or Friday.

Vegas promoted Antonio Pierce from interim to full-time head coach last offseason, but he proved to be a one-and-done staffer in that role. The Raiders initially seemed set to retain general manager Tom Telesco, but he too was dismissed last week. Controlling owner Mark Davis thus has a pair of major decisions to make in the immediate future, although it has become increasingly clear minority owner Tom Brady is playing a major role in both search processes. A second attempt at establishing the ‘Patriot Way’ (as the team did with Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler) will not take place in 2025, but otherwise it remains to be seen how the Raiders will proceed.

Joseph returned to Denver last year, having served as the team’s head coach for 2017 and ’18. His first season leading the Broncos’ defense produced underwhelming results, but in 2024 the unit took a major step forward. Finishing seventh in yards allowed and third in points surrendered, Denver’s return to the postseason was built in large part on strong defensive play. To no surprise, then, Joseph’s name will be one to watch as the 2025 hiring cycle takes shape.

Via PFR’s coaching search tracker, here is an updated look out how the Raiders’ search is taking shape:

Patriots Hire Mike Vrabel As Head Coach

January 12th, 2025 at 11:08pm CST by Rory Parks

To no surprise, the Patriots have named Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com was the first to report that the hire was imminent.

Just yesterday, we learned that New England and Vrabel were engaged in contract discussions, a clear sign that a deal was forthcoming. Now, just over a year after he was dismissed as head coach of the Titans, Vrabel is back in the HC ranks at the helm of the team with which he won three Super Bowls as a player.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Vrabel is the seventh person to become the head coach of a team that he once helped win a Super Bowl as a player. The sixth person on that list, Jerod Mayo, was fired by New England last week after just one season in the top job.

Mayo was owner Robert Kraft‘s hand-picked successor to Bill Belichick, and for a long time, it appeared that Mayo would be given at least another year in charge. After all, he inherited a team that was clearly in the early stages of a rebuild, and despite a few public missteps, it would have been easy to justify allowing him to return for 2025.

Last week, however, it was reported that those public “gaffes” — in conjunction with a locker room culture that may not have been as strong as some players portrayed it to be and an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Chargers in Week 17 — were conspiring to drive Mayo out of Foxborough. He was canned later that same day, shortly after the Pats’ regular season finale.

Speculatively, Vrabel’s availability may well have clinched Kraft’s decision to hand Mayo his walking papers. During his time as the Titans’ head coach, Vrabel established himself as one of the league’s better bench bosses, and he is highly-regarded for his game management and his ability to develop a strong culture predicated on accountability. The Titans posted a winning record in each of Vrabel’s first four seasons in Nashville, which included three playoff appearances and a trip to the AFC title game. He earned Coach of the Year honors following the 2021 campaign, but things took a turn for the worse over the 2022-23 seasons.

A seven-game losing streak to close out the 2022 season left Tennessee with a 7-10 record after a division title seemed to be in the cards, and the team slipped to a 6-11 mark in 2023. During that 2023 campaign, Ran Carthon‘s first as Titans GM following Jon Robinson‘s surprising firing, there was reportedly tension between Vrabel and Carthon (a situation that may have been exacerbated by the fact that the Titans hired Carthon instead of Ryan Cowden, who was Vrabel’s preferred Robinson successor).

Vrabel may have also wanted more input in personnel matters in Tennessee, a situation that will bear monitoring in New England. The Pats have already announced that they will retain executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and top front office executive Alonzo Highsmith, though as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com wrote this morning, the roles of those two men are to be determined. Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reports that Cowden, who is currently serving as a personnel advisor for the Giants, will likely be added to the Patriots’ personnel department in a non-GM capacity, though he believes Wolf will retain final authority.

Another situation worth monitoring will be whom Vrabel chooses as his offensive coordinator. Josh McDaniels, a familiar face for Patriots fans, has been named as an obvious choice, and the defensive-minded Vrabel will need to get that hire right in order to maximize the potential of young quarterback Drake Maye. Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 draft, showed flashes as a rookie and is one of the reasons why the New England HC job was generally seen as a desirable one, and his continued development will be a top priority.

Indeed, as Reiss points out, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — one of the most respected offensive minds in the game — was New England’s second choice. If they had offered Johnson the job, and if Johnson had accepted, the Pats would have had an ideal coach-QB pairing, but unlike Vrabel, Johnson has never had to create his own team culture. Vrabel, on the other hand, does have that experience, and the Pats are banking on his ability to properly fill out his staff.

As our head coaching search tracker shows, Vrabel was connected to each of the six teams in need of a new HC this year, further underscoring the strength of his candidacy. Per Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Bears and Jets made “consistent and late pushes” to land him, and Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic believes New York had a real shot at him until the Patriots’ job became available. Meanwhile, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reports that, despite the Raiders‘ (and minority owner Tom Brady‘s) interest in Vrabel, Brady’s former teammate declined a Las Vegas interview because he knew he would be accepting the New England gig (video link).

Despite the Patriots’ 4-13 record in 2024, the presence of Maye, the hiring of Vrabel, and the prospect of the most salary cap space in the league will surely create plenty of excitement in New England in the coming months.

NFL Staff Rumors: Raiders, Jets, 49ers

January 12th, 2025 at 9:10pm CST by Ely Allen

Based on several reports in recent days, we’ve been pushing the assumption that part-owner Tom Brady has immense influence in the Raiders‘ operations, namely the ongoing searches for a new head coach and general manager. This sentiment was all but confirmed in an article today by Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. One of Bonsignore’s sources with knowledge of the situation told him that “this is Tom’s show now” and that majority owner Mark Davis wants Brady to have a “huge” voice in the team’s operations.

Brady’s influence does appear to have its limits, though. According to Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed of The Athletic, many in the NFL pinned new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel as Brady’s top option to coach in Las Vegas. Vrabel wasn’t one of the team’s scheduled interviews, though, as those became known to the media. Apparently, Davis was “not interested in another go-round with ‘Patriots Way’ after the failure of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler two years ago.”

Brady’s voice will otherwise still be heavily considered in the search for a new head coach and general manager. Buccaneers assistant general manager John Spytek has already been identified as a potential candidate, aided by Brady’s connection to his former team. While Tafur and Reed don’t mention any actual rumored interest, they list Commanders assistant general manager Lance Newmark, Lions assistant general manager Ray Agnew, Lions director of scouting Dwayne Joseph, Chiefs assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi, and Seahawks assistant general manager Nolan Teasley as names to watch for based on their potential compatibility with different head coaching candidates.

Here are a few other staff rumors from around the NFL:

  • The Jets were another contender for Vrabel’s services, and they reportedly were extremely interested in bringing him in. In a Q&A with Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, Breer stated his belief that New York would’ve allowed Vrabel to choose his own general manager had he signed with them, especially considering their main plan is to find the best guy (head coach or general manager) and build around them to achieve alignment throughout the coaching and front office staffs. Ultimately, Breer believes the reputation of team owner Woody Johnson likely dissuaded Vrabel away from the Jets.
  • Staying in New York and with Breer’s peer at Sports Illustrated, Patrick McAvoy, we got a report that SportsNet New York insider Connor Hughes is under the opinion that Rex Ryan “is completely out” of the head coaching race for the Jets. Hughes was quoted on WFAN telling Rami Lavi that “that is not gonna happen with the Jets.”
  • Following the departure of special teams coordinator Brian Schneider, the 49ers have begun the process of replacing him. To wit, Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the team has completed an interview with Lions assistant special teams coach Jett Modkins. Modkins has spent the last four seasons in Detroit under coordinator Dave Fipp, who is widely considered one of the best in the game.

Deion Sanders Eyeing Raiders’ HC Job; Team Has “Zero Interest”

January 12th, 2025 at 12:59pm CST by Ben Levine

JANUARY 12: The Raiders reportedly have “zero interest” in Sanders, who is only using the club for leverage, a source tells Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed of The Athletic (subscription required).

JANUARY 11: While Deion Sanders has continually committed to sticking with the Colorado Buffaloes, it sounds like the fast-rising head coach and NFL Hall of Fame cornerback has indeed been sniffing around at some NFL gigs. According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sanders “has his eye” on the Raiders head coaching job.

[RELATED: Deion Sanders Not Talking NFL Future]

One source described Sanders as having “very strong interest” in the opening. In fact, the coach’s “NFL-connected associates” actually reached out to the Raiders to relay the message. Bonsignore cautions that it’s uncertain if the interest has been reciprocated.

Following his success at Jackson State and his 2024 run at Colorado, Sanders has been mentioned as a potential option for HC-needy teams, although the iconic player has yet to garner any official interviews. It was previously reported that Sanders’ name hadn’t been making itself around NFL circles, and vacancies in Chicago, New Orleans, or New York were described as unnatural fits.

However, a logical landing spot could be Las Vegas. Tom Brady is helping to spearhead the team’s search for a new head coach, and Bonsignore notes that the iconic QB-turned-part owner and the Sanders family “have a long relationship.” Brady has mentored Shedeur Sanders over the past few years, and TB12 eventually signed the prospect to an NIL deal. Armed with the sixth-overall pick, the Raiders might fall just outside of the range for the Colorado QB, although the team could be positioned to move up if they identify Sanders as their guy.

Deion Sanders recently said he’d only consider a move to the NFL if he could coach his son (via Bonsignore), and Las Vegas would represent one of the lone spots for that to happen. Of course, it’s a two-way street, and after dealing with a carousel of head coaches in recent years, the Raiders may not be looking to take as much of a risk with their next move.

As our 2025 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker shows, the following candidates have been connected to the Raiders:

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