Inside Raiders’ lost 2025 season: Tom Brady’s influence, private meetings and dysfunction

TOM BRADY HAS been assigned to call five Chicago Bears games this season. Five times he has watched as Ben Johnson, the head coach he wanted to hire for Las Vegas’ open job last year, led the Bears from the bottom of the division to the top.

«Ben Johnson has come in and changed the culture with his accountability and attention to detail,» Brady said on the Fox broadcast of the Week 16 Packers game at Soldier Field, a 22-16 Bears overtime win. «…When you are trying to turn around a losing organization, you need buy-in.»

Brady’s arrival as a minority owner in 2024 heralded a new Raiders era — that of an all-time great and genius football mind who could influence the franchise far more than his 5% minority ownership stake would typically allow. And while Brady did impact the team’s direction, the all-too-familiar Raiders turmoil and failure continued — a 3-14 record and nine losses by double digits, with five of those coming against teams with a below-.500 record. His preferred coaching candidate — Johnson — took the Bears job before the Raiders could even make him an offer. And on Monday, the Raiders fired head coach Pete Carroll.

Interviews with 22 people in and around the team and the league point less to Brady as the cause of another failed year than continued dysfunction symptomatic of an impatient owner, a misaligned front office and coaching staff, and players who lost respect for their coaches. How the team will navigate it all is one of the defining questions of the NFL offseason.

«Brady has a lot of say in the organization,» said an agent of a Raiders client in December. «Pete will be gone, and Spytek will stay because Brady will want it that way. Mark Davis needed an influx of cash to operate at a different level. With new cash comes strings, and those strings are Tom Brady.»

«Who would want the Raiders job?» asked an agent of a Raiders player. «The coach who takes the Raiders job is the coach who takes any job. They know: ‘As soon as we have a string of losses — which we will likely have — they will be calling for my head and the owner is going to listen.'»

The Raiders declined to make Carroll or Brady available for interviews. In a statement from team owner Davis about Carroll’s firing, he defined Brady’s role in the most specific, but somehow still vague, terms yet: General manager John Spytek will lead football operations in «close collaboration» with Brady, and together «they will guide football decisions,» including the search for the next head coach.

IN OCTOBER 2024, Davis held court in the lobby of The Whitley in Atlanta long after his fellow NFL owners fled the scene of the fall owners meeting. While his peers power walked with heads down to avoid eye contact with reporters on their way to their idling black SUVs with tinted windows, Davis welcomed reporters to gather around the couch where he sat.

Davis, 70, usually looks boyish because of his youthful haircut, but on this night, he also sported childlike glee, and despite the Raiders’ 2-4 record at that point in the season, he eagerly detailed his franchise’s latest acquisition.

«Although Tom can’t play, I think he can help us select a quarterback in the future and potentially train as well,» Davis said. «It’s a huge benefit to the organization.»

That night in October, Davis wouldn’t detail a specific role for Brady. According to NFL rules, Brady can’t have a title other than «limited partner,» because a person with equity can only be a team employee if they are the controlling owner or are related to the controlling owner.

But two months later, in December 2024 at the next owners meeting, Davis offered a little more: «I want Tom to have a huge voice — no question about it. It’s part of building the infrastructure of the organization … a football person on that side of it that’s not a coach or a general manager. He’s somebody who can oversee the whole picture. I believe Tom, come time, will be the person who can do that.»

Since Davis took over as controlling owner in 2011, the team has had two winning seasons and no playoff wins. Six head coaches and five general managers tried to find success but failed. On Davis’ payroll today are three GMs and three head coaches, and five of the six do not work there anymore but are still under contract.

Davis points to head coach Jon Gruden’s resignation in 2021, following reports that he wrote emails with racist, misogynistic and anti-gay language, as the moment the Raiders’ process got «blown up.»

Interim head coach Rich Bisaccia went 7-5 and led the team to its most recent playoff appearance and winning season. Former Raiders general manager Mike Mayock, who worked with Gruden and was fired after the 2021 season, declined to talk to ESPN for this story, but he said via text message: «Had the Raiders kept Bisaccia after the 2021 season, they would be competing for divisional titles, not for the 1st pick in the draft.»

Instead, Davis hired Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, then Antonio Pierce and Tom Telesco, neither lasting a full two years. Brady arrived at the end of last season, poised to take a bigger role. Davis fired Pierce. «Even starting with [firing] me, I think with me that was one of [Brady’s] calls,» Pierce told SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio in September.

Davis fired Telesco two days later, «after consulting with Brady and others,» The Athletic reported.

Neither Pierce nor Telesco had a strong connection to Brady. Brady was part of the interview panel in the hiring process for the Raiders’ next head coach and general manager, along with Mike Meldman, Egon Durban and Tom Wagner, limited partners who also joined the Raiders’ ownership group in 2024.

The Raiders hired first-time general manager Spytek, who was seen in league circles as the clear favorite for the job because he’d been a University of Michigan football teammate of Brady’s and a personnel executive for the Buccaneers during Brady’s three seasons in Tampa.

With a GM in place, hiring a good coach became the priority. Brady and the team settled on Ben Johnson, the hottest head coaching candidate of last year’s cycle. The seven-time Super Bowl champion went to work as a recruiter.

Per Sports Illustrated, Johnson had zero interest in even interviewing with the team until Brady got involved through intermediaries.

But Johnson took the Bears job before Las Vegas ever made him an offer — the Raiders’ history and turmoil too much to overcome. Johnson’s agent, Rick Smith, declined to comment to ESPN.

«There were three or four people that we were truly interested in,» Davis said in January. «And when one person made a decision to go to another team, it became clear that Pete [Carroll] was going to be our guy.»

A source close to Spytek says the general manager was not involved in hiring Carroll because the Raiders did not interview any new head coach candidates after Spytek was hired Jan. 21. The team announced Carroll’s hire Jan. 25.

Carroll, who turned 74 in September and became the oldest head coach in NFL history, was seen as the safe route in NFL circles, someone who had won at least 10 games in nine seasons — tied for 11th most by a coach in the Super Bowl era — and could jump-start the culture of a team that needed to reset. Carroll wanted to win immediately because, like Brady, winning seasons were all he had really known.

«We’re starting right now, going for it immediately,» Carroll said in an introductory news conference. «We don’t have some time that we’ve got to make it five, six years down the road. That’s not what we’re thinking.»

Except his general manager had just outlined a different vision.

«We want to draft and develop because it’s the best way to build a solid foundation of a team and then to reward those players with second contracts,» Spytek said at the introductory news conference. «But if the opportunity comes to sign a Tom Brady or a Baker Mayfield or trade for a Jason Pierre-Paul or Rob Gronkowski — just examples of my career — we will absolutely do that when the team is ready.»

The differing thoughts were noticed.

«Let’s be honest, you are talking about a first-year general manager and a veteran head coach in his mid-70s,» a second Raiders player agent told ESPN. «So to an extent, of course, they’re not going to always be aligned the same.»

Spytek addressed it this week, after Carroll’s firing: «I wouldn’t say we were operating on different timelines, but I’ve also never been in a relationship where we both agree all the time. Anything we didn’t agree on, we talked about. He was always in my office, and I was in his office. We sat in the space together until we thought we could make the best decision for the Raiders.»

But even the coaching staff hires didn’t look like natural fits. The Raiders hired Chip Kelly away from Ohio State as their offensive coordinator, making him the highest-paid OC in the NFL. The two-time NFL head coach and former Oregon head coach had never worked with Carroll before, and The Athletic reported that it was Brady who was «a big advocate of bringing in Kelly.»

In February, Brady tried to recruit Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford when L.A. gave Stafford’s agent permission to seek a trade. There was the infamous report of a planned recruiting visit in which Brady hosted Stafford at his home in Montana and subsequent counter-report that it was an unplanned Montana ski resort run-in between Brady and Stafford. Per multiple reports, the Raiders were willing to offer Stafford a two-year deal worth $90 million to $100 million, but ultimately Stafford chose to sign an extension in L.A.

The Athletic reported that Brady was not in favor of signing free agent quarterback Sam Darnold. So the team traded with Seattle for quarterback Geno Smith, while Seattle signed Darnold, who has put together back-to-back 14-win seasons for two different teams.

«Tom definitely influences everything that goes on there,» said a third agent of a Raiders player. «The coaching hire, the Geno Smith trade, Matthew Stafford recruitment, he was involved with all that.»

Brady’s big swings for coach and quarterback — which seemed possible because of the allure of who he is and what he represents — winning and consistency — both missed, and Las Vegas wound up with two compromises at the two most important spots.

«Why couldn’t they get the coach and the QB that they wanted?» asked a personnel executive for another NFL team. «Because people view that place as a place of constant dysfunction. And now Tom is involved and what did this year look like? More dysfunction. Why would people that have options and choices be interested?»

SPYTEK, IN MARCH at league meetings, tried to reset expectations.

«This isn’t a one-year, try to save it,» Spytek said. «This is a build the right way, set the franchise in the right direction, built for sustained success. Get it in a place where we [have] a young roster with a lot of good players, and then maybe there’s a free agent in a year or two, where you really go for it.»

The Raiders’ offseason strategy, however, sent mixed signals, three personnel executives for other teams told ESPN. Trading a third-round pick for then-34-year-old Smith and then signing him to a two-year, $75 million extension, drafting a running back with the No. 6 pick and signing a slew of veteran free agents, six of whom were in their 30s, didn’t look like the actions of team that Spytek said was building long-term.

«They have operated as a team that thinks they’re in their competitive window,» the first executive said. «Which is a mistake in strategy.»

«It’s a team and an organization that doesn’t know who they are,» said the second executive. «Before the year, you’d say they were not going to be very good from a personnel standpoint. Then Pete comes out and says, ‘I win 10 games all the time.’ But this [roster] was not even close to winning 10 games.»

«So many things needed to be fixed,» the third personnel executive said. «It wasn’t going to happen for them in Year 1. They were too far away. They had a string of first-round misses [under Mayock] Clelin Ferrell, Damon Arnette, Henry Ruggs III, Alex Leatherwood, and you can really see it in the roster.»

THE MOST OPTIMISTIC time for any player, coach, team or fan base is training camp.

Wide receiver Tre Tucker felt it and gushed about the potential of the Raiders’ offense.

«Oh my gosh, I love Chip Kelly’s offense,» Tucker said. «It’s just an explosive offense, man.»

With two 1,000-yard pass catchers returning in All-Pro tight end Brock Bowers and receiver Jakobi Meyers, the Raiders looked like they had the weapons to be that explosive offense that Tucker talked about. They won their first game at New England, but then dropped four straight, including a 40-6 loss at the Colts, and a 41-24 loss at the Commanders.

The run game, with prized first-round running back Ashton Jeanty, was nearly nonexistent, which put more pressure on a struggling passing game.

Smith threw nine interceptions through five games — the most by any Raiders quarterback in the team’s first five games of a season since Jim Plunkett in 1982 (9) and Meyers’ numbers declined before he was traded to Jacksonville at the deadline. He went from averaging 76 yards per game in the first three weeks to 34 yards per game in his final four games.

An agent representing a Raider and a team source said the Raiders’ offense struggled because Kelly’s practice installs didn’t work, players didn’t buy into what he was trying to do, and some were confused about the plays he was running.

Even opponents had questions. In the Raiders’ loss to the Bears in Week 4, safety Kevin Byard III picked off Smith twice on the same look, in the first quarter and again in the second quarter.

«You won’t normally see those plays back to back,» Byard told ESPN. «I was surprised I got the same look, and I was able to capitalize off those plays.»

In October, Carroll had his own criticism for Kelly’s playcalling: «We don’t want to ever rely on the quarterback having to do the whole show and sitting in a shotgun, throw the football. I never coached that way. … We got to make sure that we’re calling all the best stuff in the situations.»

Kelly, when asked about Carroll’s comments, said: «I mean, that’s what our game plan is every game.»

In a 31-0 shutout by Kansas City in Week 7, the Raiders totaled 95 yards of offense on 30 plays, becoming the second team since 1950 to run 30 or fewer offensive plays in a game. Patrick Mahomes sat for the entire fourth quarter, and the Chiefs offense lined up in victory formation with 2:36 to go.

«This was a game that I didn’t see coming,» Carroll said. «We have a lot of work to do.»

At the end of October, in a move that signaled the Raiders were still trying to save the 2025 season, they signed 33-year-old receiver and former Seahawk Tyler Lockett, who knew Smith and Carroll well.

«Lockett took snaps away from rookies,» said the second personnel executive for another team. «They added all these veteran players to a bad team that should be focused on playing all young players.»

THE RAIDERS’ OFFENSIVE line and run game was 22nd in both run block win rate (70.2%) and pass block win rate (60.7%). Smith was sacked 55 times — tied for most in the league. The Raiders averaged 74.9 rushing yards — the fewest in a season in the past 25 years and ranked last in the league in nearly every rushing metric. Jeanty rushed for at least 100 yards twice and was held to fewer than 50 yards eight times.

The coaching staff played several offensive linemen at different positions than they’d played in 2024. Dylan Parham moved to left guard even though he had played on the right side. Jackson Powers-Johnson spent the offseason training at center but was moved to right guard, while Jordan Meredith started at center after playing left guard. Veteran guard Alex Cappa played the final six weeks of the season at center despite playing the position only once in a preseason game when he was with Tampa Bay.

Complicating matters was that the offensive line coach is Carroll’s son, Brennan.

Brennan had spent five seasons in Seattle with his dad as the assistant OL coach, and one as run game coordinator. He was then the OC and OL coach for the University of Arizona and the University of Washington — working for head coach Jedd Fisch at both schools — before reuniting with his dad in Vegas this season. Washington ranked sixth in the Big Ten in yards per game during Carroll’s lone season there, and Arizona’s offense was among the Big 12’s best during his tenure. Pete’s other son, Nate Carroll, is the Raiders’ assistant quarterbacks and game management coach, and also worked for Pete Carroll in Seattle.

«A lot of guys were out of their natural position,» left tackle Kolton Miller told ESPN. «It’s not easy, but [Brennan Carroll] tried to get the best of us together each week.»

An agent of a Raiders offensive lineman said that his client told him the position group met multiple times on their own with Smith and Jeanty, and specifically without coaches, so the quarterback and running back could talk to them about how they wanted the offensive line to create blocks.

«It was that bad,» the agent told ESPN. «They were meeting on their own and trying to figure it out together, which I have never heard of in my history of working in this league.»

«There is some sort of nepotism going on,» a fourth agent of a Raiders player said.

The agent also said his client said that Brennan Carroll rushed players through individual drills at practice and didn’t teach them what they were trying to achieve in specific drills.

Right tackle DJ Glaze and rookie tackle Charles Grant confirmed that the offensive line met with Smith and Jeanty at least twice a week since OTAs without the coaching staff involved but said it was to develop chemistry among each other.

«It’s only so much you can do with your coaches throughout the day,» Glaze told ESPN. «So we would just get together to go over different things, get a little bit more chemistry and understanding each position during the week.»

Glaze told ESPN there were times when the unit didn’t know who was starting until the Saturday before a game because the coaching staff wanted to see how the competition played out during the week and whether a player would be available due to injury.

«This offensive line coach is the biggest issue with this team,» said the agent of a Raiders offensive lineman in December. «Everybody knows and nobody talks about it because it’s Pete’s son. Everyone talks about it behind the scenes, no one talks about it publicly.»

«Just like anything, you know where issues are,» a team source said. «Guys stay pretty professional. Some stuff is like an elephant in the room, but guys keep a poker face [and] keep on working.»

When asked about Brennan Carroll and his communication, several Raiders offensive linemen deflected from pointing fingers at their coach, and instead told ESPN that injuries complicated their performance.

The Raiders declined to make Brennan Carroll available.

An executive for another NFL club said his team was interested in trading for Powers-Johnson, a second-year player who was drafted by the previous regime. He wondered why the Raiders coaching staff wasn’t playing the young player with potential at center and had moved him to guard. When his club’s trade efforts were rejected, the executive said it was clear to him that Vegas’ coaching staff and front office were on different pages.

«Spytek knows that he has a pretty young, talented interior lineman,» the executive said. «They are not where they want to be in that position group, but they didn’t come close to maximizing it. They actually have some good young players, and they should have been more functional.»

One young Raiders player was getting extra study in with the general manager. Jeanty told ESPN that he met with Spytek at the beginning of each week for an individual film session to study opposing defenses — something a Raiders spokesperson said Spytek did with Brady during their time together in Tampa Bay. Two personnel executives and multiple current and former general managers told ESPN that it isn’t common for GMs to do individual film sessions with players, and they hadn’t heard of it ever happening.

Jeanty said Spytek initiated these weekly film sessions and that he offered to study tape with the team’s entire rookie class if they wanted to.

Fellow rookies Jack Bech, Dont’e Thornton Jr. and Darien Porter told ESPN that they haven’t had private film sessions with Spytek, but they’ve had frequent conversations with him on ways to improve.

«I decided to take advantage of it,» Jeanty said. «He’s helped me to really break down film, so it’s been a great relationship so far.»

Eleven games into the season, Tucker’s optimism about Kelly’s offense had faded. «We are definitely not where we want to be,» he said. «I’m a little surprised.»

And the next week, Kelly was fired after the Raiders’ 24-10 home loss to the Browns, making it the third straight season that the Raiders have fired an OC midseason.

After Kelly was fired, NFL Network reported that he had botched playcalls and called plays that he hadn’t installed in the game plan. Carroll denied that report and Smith, who communicated with Kelly pre-snap before every play, told ESPN that Kelly never botched plays. One Raiders player who requested anonymity said there were a couple of times when there was confusion pre-snap with the hash marks and player alignment. Kelly did not return calls or texts from ESPN.

Carroll hoped interim offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who was the quarterbacks coach for Seattle in 2023, would rejuvenate the offense, but in six games with Olson as the playcaller, the Raiders were 32nd in points (12.6) and total yards (201.7)

Smith finished the season with a league-high 17 interceptions and was 27th in QBR (34.2).

It wasn’t until after the Raiders’ 31-0 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15, which dropped them to 2-12, that Carroll finally admitted he had been «blindly optimistic» about the talent on the roster and said that a rebuild is «what’s necessary» for the organization.

BRADY VISITED TRAINING camp and attended three Raiders games in person this regular season, one preseason game and two Monday night games that didn’t interfere with his Fox broadcasting job. He sat in the coaches’ booth and wore a headset for the preseason game and the first Monday night game. That image became its own multiday news cycle, as the ethics of a broadcaster-owner sitting in his team’s coaching booth during a game became a topic of persistent debate. He moved to the owner’s suite for the second.

Brady is a business mogul, involved with wellness, apparel and media brands. He lives in Florida and travels to work NFL games every weekend during the season. Before Kelly was fired in November, he said he and Brady spent time over the summer talking football on Zoom while Brady was «traveling all over the place.»

Miller, the left tackle, said Brady has been in the building five or six times this season. Multiple Raiders players said Brady spoke to the team a couple of times this season, sharing wisdom and detailing his vision for the organization to become a winning club.

«We just got to keep chopping wood to achieve that vision,» Tucker said.

«He really is an amazing asset,» Carroll said about Brady, in March. «The only issue is that he’s not around all the time, not there all the time with us. But it’s not that he’s not competing all the time. He’s keeping track of everything, we talk regularly.»

Brady hasn’t spoken publicly about what he thinks of the 2025 Raiders performance or detailed how involved he is in day-to-day decisions, but Spytek spoke about the minority owner’s role after the season.

«I talk to him a lot,» Spytek said Monday. «He is aware of what we are doing. I don’t bore him with mundane transactions, but any big decision, I talk to him about. He can’t be here every day right now, but I promise you, I talk to him a lot and he and I are on the same page.»

Some who have worked in personnel and coaching for Las Vegas wonder if Brady is qualified to be advising decision-making, and with everything else he has going on, if he has enough time to devote to it.

«If he’s going to help with the organization, he needs to be there 24/7, that’s the way I look at it,» says Ken Herock, former Raiders player and personnel director, who helped Mark Davis in the searches for McDaniels/Ziegler and Pierce/Telesco. «I don’t want an outside adviser giving me advice on something for an hour, and then that’s it.»

«It’s a full-time job running a football team, making decisions in personnel,» said a former Raiders assistant coach. «And they got a guy who calls games on Sunday giving them input on who they should hire and sign as a QB.»

«Tom has never run a team,» said a former Raiders personnel executive. «I keep telling people, like Tom has all this influence, but Tom isn’t in the building and he doesn’t have any experience with this.»

STAR EDGE RUSHER Maxx Crosby has played for as many Raiders head coaches as he’s made Pro Bowls — five in seven seasons: Gruden, Bisaccia, McDaniels, Pierce and Carroll.

Each new head coach — McDaniels, then Pierce, then Carroll — has leaned on Crosby to be the voice of the team and to set the culture. He’s been asked to be, in Carroll’s lingo, the «tip of the spear,» the definitive player leader.

Crosby has been expected to be the same guy as he’s adjusted to learn the different personalities and tendencies of each new coach. He’s helped recruit free agents, counsel frustrated players, and keep his teammates motivated during difficult losing stretches.

«He’s a true leader,» said defensive tackle Adam Butler. «You don’t come across people like that in our lifetime.»

Crosby had done all of that for Carroll and Spytek this season, through nine straight losses, and then once the No. 1 pick was in sight, the same staff who relied on him for his leadership during the transition decided not to let him have a say in whether he kept playing through the knee injury he suffered in Week 5, and placed him on IR ahead of their Week 17 game. Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer said he spoke to Crosby, and he was, «not a happy camper.»

«It definitely f—ed me up… I’m sorry,» Raiders cornerback Eric Stokes told ESPN after Crosby was placed on IR. «I know the type of guy Maxx is. He really wanted to play. He’s given everything he has to this organization.»

Teams have been interested in trading for Crosby multiple times throughout his Raiders career, but Crosby has always wanted to stay a Raider. But now he’s staring at the reality of his sixth Raiders head coach.

«I don’t give a s— about the pick,» Crosby said three days before he was told he wouldn’t be playing in the Week 17 game. «My job is to be the best defensive end in the world, and that’s what I focus on every day.»

A personnel executive for another club said that he thinks that this time Crosby, «a pretty principled dude,» is done in Vegas.

«It’s hard to find guys like that to lead and just willing to put everything on the line [and] sacrifice everything,» Stokes said. «Once you find them, you’ve got to make sure you do everything to keep them around because you feed off of that.»

Dan Graziano contributed to this report