The Las Vegas Raiders have been hard at work to find their next head coach.
Since firing head coach Antonio Pierce on Tuesday, the Raiders have interviewed or set up interviews with a number on potential candidates.
Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was interviewed virtually on Friday, and analysts believe he is the current clubhouse leader for the Raiders job.
Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo also interviewed on Friday. Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh will interview next week, while an interview with Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken is yet to be scheduled.
While the Raiders have fielded an impressive list of candidates so far, many were surprised by one particular omission: former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.
When Pierce was fired, many considered Vrabel to be in the running for the Raiders. He was a teammate of minority owner Tom Brady on the New England Patriots for eight years, and was widely considered as one of the top candidates on the market.
However, Vrabel was never requested for an interview by the Raiders, and he accepted the Patriots’ head coaching job on Sunday.
The Raiders’ lack of interest in Vrabel came off as a surprise, but The Athletic’s Vic Tafur presented a plausible theory to explain the issue.
“As far as Vrabel, everyone with WiFi service assumed and reported that he was Brady’s guy and would be in the mix for the Raiders job,” Tafur wrote.
“But Vrabel wasn’t on the Raiders’ interview list last week. One reason may surprise you. Davis apparently is not interested in another go-round with “The Patriots Way” after the failure of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler two years ago, according to league sources.”
In 2022, the Raiders hired Josh McDaniels as head coach and Dave Ziegler as general manager. Both worked with the Patriots dynasty underneath Bill Belichick, and they were brought to Las Vegas to instill a similar winning culture in their locker room.
Unfortunately, the end result could not have been any further away. The regime went 9-16 with the Raiders, and both McDaniels and Ziegler were fired midway through the 2023 season.
In hindsight, the failure was rather easy to predict. Out of the ten Belichick disciples who earned full-time head coaching jobs, only two have career records over .500 in the NFL (Al Groh in 2000 with the New York Jets, Bill O’Brien from 2014-20 with the Houston Texans).
The Patriot Way and similar methods to building dynasties are difficult to build, and even more so to implement with a different team. The Raiders, like many teams before them, found that lesson out the hard way.
While Brady’s influence made Vrabel a logical choice, the Raiders are showing growth by avoiding the same traps from before in this coaching cycle.
Tom Brady, Raiders reportedly ‘enamored’ with head coaching candidate
