Brady Points Fingers At Everyone, Says He Expects ‘Massive Improvement’ From Raiders

Las Vegas Raiders minority owner Tom Brady covered a lot of ground during his recent appearance on the Stick to Football podcast, and he threw everybody under the bus for last year’s miserable performance that resulted in a 3-14 record, according to a report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. 

“I would expect a lot of improvement from where it’s been,” Brady said. “Last year, we just underperformed in every area. And it’s everybody’s fault. That’s the reality. There’s nobody who did a good job. There’s not one player in the organization, there’s not anybody involved that did the job to the level that it needs to be done at. And everybody needs to improve.” 

This comment comes laced with irony. Brady is an absentee owner who spends his weekends working as an analyst for Fox Sports, so for starters there’s the issue of whether anything beyond his Raiders association that allows him to make this kind of comment. 

And as Florio noted, there are a couple of players who might disagree. Defensive end Maxx Crosby would be the top choice in this category, and there are others like cornerback Eric Stokes who played well enough to earn an extension to salvage what was a struggling career.

Brock Bowers also had a solid season when he was able to get on the field, and there are probably several others who deserve some praise for performing well occasionally in the midst of the coaching chaos that ended with Pete Carroll getting fired. 

Brady did name himself as one at the end of his comment, but his phrasing made it sound obligatory and at least somewhat disingenuous given his unwillingness to specify his role in all this.  

“And it starts with me,” Brady added, “and it filters down to the rest of the players on the field, and they’ve got to go out there, and ultimately they’ve got to perform at a high level.”

Brady also got specific about the improvement he expects, which was also ironic because as Florio noted, he “isn’t in position to grab an oar and row the boat, because he works for Fox calling games.”

“A massive improvement,” Brady added. “And I would expect daily improvement, and I’d expect hourly improvement. I really would. Every day that goes by, when you’re on a good team, every day and every week goes by, you should be better. Like, a good team should be better at the end of the season than the beginning of the season, or you’re not a good team. If you have more time together and more practice and you’re getting worse, something’s wrong.”

It has to be galling for the current players and new coach Klint Kubiak to receive this kind of oblique tongue-lashing from afar, and that might be a big part of what’s wrong as well.