Everyone is curious to see how Tom Brady will juggle his role with the Las Vegas Raiders and his commentary duties this upcoming season. Some would argue that the two gigs are a conflict of interest, since he has access to insider information that other teams might not. Regardless, he’s still a minority owner and has had his fingerprints all over the massive overhaul in Sin City this offseason.
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But what exactly does Brady do for the Raiders? After all, he’s the greatest football player of all time. Surely, he’s offering some sort of advice to the front office despite his small stake in the team.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated pulled back the curtain and revealed what the GOAT actually does. He began by discussing Brady’s impact.
“I would say Brady’s impact on that place is a, it’s going to help keep Mark Davis at bay a little bit,” Breer shared on The Rich Eisen Show.
What does he mean by that? The reporter went on to explain that there has been a lot of tension within the Raiders’ ownership in recent seasons, including an incident where former head coach Josh McDaniels was yelled at by Davis after a win. It painted a clear picture of just how unsettled things were within the organization before Brady arrived.
However, now that Brady is there, the standards for running a team and evaluating players have skyrocketed.
“I think that there’s a certain type of player that Tom wants in the building. And I think those guys [the front office] know, like, we’re going to have to go talk to Tom about who we’re acquiring, who we’re drafting, who we’re signing, who we’re trading for, we want to be able to tell him this is your type of guy,” Breer added.
So far, Brady and the Raiders have made several big changes this offseason to overhaul the team. They started by hiring Pete Carroll after he took a season off from coaching in the NFL, then traded for Geno Smith from Carroll’s former team.
On top of that, they signed Jeremy Chinn and Eric Stokes in the secondary to help revamp the defense. They also brought in Alex Cappa, one of the more sought-after offensive linemen on the market, along with Raheem Mostert, to add veteran running back depth behind first-round pick Ashton Jeanty.
Perhaps the biggest move with Brady’s fingerprints all over it came when the team pried offensive coordinator Chip Kelly away from Ohio State. They offered him $6 million in an aggressive move that signaled they are here and ready to compete.
Later on in the interview, Breer spoke about how Brady also once flew incognito to Vegas to help scout quarterbacks.
“So, he flew in like incognito for a day to sit down with the front office and the coaches to go through quarterbacks and look at quarterbacks on tape, and left, and no one knew about it. My understanding is that- he knows if he shows up, he takes all the oxygen out of the room,” Breer added.
It makes sense. Given his career resume, it would’ve been hard for other scouts to feel like their analysis wasn’t falling on deaf ears. We just wish we could’ve seen Brady’s disguise when he goes into incognito mode.
Earlier this year, the GOAT described his role with the Raiders, and it sounds similar to what Breer outlined.
“My ownership interests in the Raiders is just much more of a long-term, kind of behind-the-scenes type role. I am there to support the team and leadership and the overall vision of success,” Brady told Sports Illustrated.
All in all, Brady has done an excellent job of supporting his NFL team so far. They’ve completely overhauled several aspects of the club and could head into 2025 as a dark horse Super Bowl contender. There’s still a long way to go and plenty of work to do, but don’t write off “Da Raidas” … they might just surprise some people.
