Tom Brady’s role in the Las Vegas Raiders’ reset is now official. With Pete Carroll out and the No. 1 pick looming, Las Vegas turns to Brady and general manager John Spytek to steer the next coaching hire. If nothing else, at least Raider Nation has a clear picture of who’s running the show.
Brady’s role in the efforts to rebuild the Raiders is no longer implied. It is now documented and public-facing, which raises the stakes for every decision that follows.
A clear picture on who’s running the Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders fired Pete Carroll on Monday after a 3-14 season, then immediately framed the next phase as a partnership between Spytek and Brady, the team’s minority owner. In the club’s announcement, owner Mark Davis said Spytek “will lead all football operations in close collaboration with Tom Brady, including the search for the club’s next head coach.”
Davis couldn’t have been any clearer.
That language matters. It formalizes a power structure that has been rumored for more than a year. In January 2025, the Las Vegas Review-Journal quoted a person with knowledge of the situation describing the post-overhaul dynamic in blunt terms: “This is Tom’s show now.” Davis later acknowledged Brady’s active participation in key decisions, including the Carroll firing and the coaching search, according to Reuters.
The immediate task is straightforward and unforgiving: hire a head coach who can survive the organizational churn. The Raiders are now searching for their 15th head coach since 2000, a number that captures the franchise’s instability better than any slogan.
What to do with the No. 1 pick?
The parallel task is bigger: decide what to do with the No. 1 overall pick. The Raiders have not selected first overall since 2007, and a top pick almost always becomes a quarterback conversation—whether the front office wants it to or not. Brady’s football résumé gives him instant credibility in that room. It does not guarantee alignment, which is the Raiders’ recurring failure point.
More importantly, it doesn’t assure Brady (or Spytek) will make the right choice. Raiders fans can only hope that Brady’s experiences will give some insight that’ll pay dividends—Davis is surely hoping the same.
If Brady is “calling the shots,” the standard changes with the title. This is not influence. It is accountability for outcomes: the coach, the quarterback timeline, and the discipline to keep both aligned.
*Top Photo: Getty Images