Former quarterback Tom Brady is done with his day job announcing for Fox Sports for the moment, so he’s shifting his attention back to his side hustle, which is hiring a new coach as minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Most of the teams making hires have either found their guy or done most of the interviews, but Brady and the Raiders are just now getting around to second interviews, so let’s take a look at who’s up, what they bring to the table and what their chances are. According to an article by Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, these interviews have a better chance of taking place in Las Vegas, not Miami, as that's where Brady currently is after working in Seattle yesterday.
Joe Brady, Offensive Coordinator, Buffalo Bills
Aside from being Tom’s namesake, the Buffalo coordinator’s claim to fame is having success with Josh Allen, which is harder than it looks even with the obvious talent level. Brady finally ran out of luck this year, though, as Bills’ GM Brandon Beane left Allen with a lack of weapons that seemed like a fireable offense but wasn’t.
Is he the right man for the job? It seems like a stretch, but the Raiders coaching hire isa guessing game under the best of circumstances, and this year they’re so late to the coaching hiring party that Joe Brady may have a better shot than we think.
Davis Webb, Passing Game Coordinator, Denver Broncos
Webb is young and inexperienced as a coach, but he played quarterback as a backup for a long time so he might be a good guy to develop Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza, assuming the Raiders don’t trade back and take Mendoza. He's done some good work under coach Sean Payton with quarterback Bo Nix, but no one really knows about his relationship with Tom Brady so far. Consider Webb a sneaky long-shot candidate.
Ejiro Evero, Defensive Coordinator, Carolina Panthers
Evero is the one name on this list that doesn’t make much sense, but this is the Raiders, so never say never. It would be remarkable for Las Vegas to make a defensive hire, much less one an obscure name like Evero, so that same caveat about the never thing also applies here.
Brian Daboll, Head Coach, New York Giants
Tom Brady knows Daboll from his quarterbacking days with the New England Patriots, and Daboll also used his work with Allen as a springboard to a head coaching job. This will be his first interview with the Raiders, so he's the exception to the rule on this list.
This would also be a shocking hire—sensing a pattern here?—given how bad things got for Daboll with the New York Giants, but Daboll is actually a strong candidate because he’s almost certainly the only candidate on this list with a relationship to Brady. He also has at least a hypothetical understanding about what it takes to develop a young quarterback.