The Las Vegas Raiders, like most teams that retain and extend an interim head coach whose successes were based heavily on the fact that they were not the unlikable full-time head coach whom they replaced, were unhappy with the performance of Antonio Pierce after just one season. The team dismissed Pierce Tuesday, though not before pulling the bush league maneuver of making him awkwardly give an end-of-season press conference before he was informed of his status.
Though Pierce struggled to find a comfort zone as a game manager and vacillated throughout the season between painfully conservative and overly aggressive, and his handling of a dismal quarterback situation robbed the team of an offensive identity, winning even four games with that roster deserves commendation. So, too, does the fact that Pierce oversaw an offensive staff that pieced together the greatest single season by a rookie pass catcher ever (while Brock Bowers was still not receiving the Rob Gronkowski double-team treatment toward the end of the season for some reason, it’s impressive that a team with limited weapons managed to target and complete passes to said weapon so often).
Of course, it wasn’t enough to alter the inevitable course of action. And while that is largely disappointing, the firing will get us one step closer to answering a question we’ve been curious about for the past few months: What, exactly, is Tom Brady responsible for in Las Vegas? How involved will he be in the coaching search while he prepares to broadcast significant NFL playoff games, including the Super Bowl? And, will any head coaches stay away for fear that Brady, one of the most devoted and involved players in NFL history, will eventually find himself weighing in quite regularly on how business is being conducted?
Personally, I’ve gotten mixed feedback on how involved Brady will be—or even can be—during this process. It would make sense for Mark Davis to give Brady some degree of prominence. Davis, while unhappy with his first foray into recreating the Patriot Way with Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, remains interested in transferring those ideas into his own day-to-day processes. Also, Brady would be a useful redirection from Davis’s abysmal record of hiring coaches, a list that now includes—excluding interims—Dennis Allen, Jack Del Rio, Jon Gruden, McDaniels and Pierce.
This, in my opinion, is where Davis will find true value after giving the league’s greatest player ever a generous deal on a slice of the franchise. In true Vegas fashion, it’s a lot like paying Bobby Flay $100 million to put his name on a failing burger barn. Now, it’s a failing burger barn with gravitas (and, based on my extensive knowledge of Beat Bobby Flay, a lot of Calabrian chili oil). Davis has wisely sought out some kind of all-encompassing culture during his time as owner. The hiring of Gruden, while a nod to the past, was also a hope that the Raiders would embark on a series of consistent decisions that would lead back to some central, attractive, marketable ethos. Something that would erase the senseless patchwork quilt that now makes up Las Vegas’s identity after years of hiring and firing. Though the Raiders are an iconic brand, nothing about what they once were currently makes up what they are now. The rapid turnover of so many coaches and general managers has made it impossible to uncover a single thread of common sense.
Since no one seems to care that Brady is an owner and an announcer anyway, or really what he’s doing with either of those roles, having him be the face of the search would take some of the pressure off Davis, whose fatigue after countless hacks in the batting cage has to be significant.
I know nothing about the time it takes for Brady to prepare to call an NFL game—make your jokes here—but I can’t imagine that Davis wouldn’t want Brady sitting in on every virtual call, taking notes and asking probing questions about scheme, staffing and how to bundle it all together in a digestible message.
It would teach us about the future path of the franchise. It would also teach us about Brady, whom Davis personally respects and truly values. (Having said all this, it’s worth noting that, while a handful of industry sources said they expected Brady to have a say, some did not expect that Brady would immediately make his presence felt this winter.)
The eventual answer may not also be obvious or satisfying. Brady was bred into the most clandestine operation in sporting history. Bill Belichick and the Patriots more closely resembled a dark unit of the CIA than a professional football team. Most everything operated on a need-to-know basis and we’ll never be privy to text messages between members of ownership. A person could be hired as Brady’s ideal candidate without them—or us—ever knowing about it.
All we know for now is that it took a contingent of Raiders minds longer than usual to decide that Pierce wasn’t coming back in 2025. We’ll see how long it takes for the team to tell us now who is really calling the shots from here on out.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Raiders’ Next Move Should Tell Us How Involved Tom Brady Really Is.