LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Following a four-win season, the Las Vegas Raiders decided to part ways with Antonio Pierce on Tuesday after one full season with the team.
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) January 7, 2025
As the team looks for its next head coach, NFL legend Tom Brady will have ‘a lot’ of influence, according to The Athletic. Brady became minority owner of the Raiders in October.
“I’m eager to contribute to the organization in any way I can, honoring the Raiders’ rich tradition while finding every possible opportunity to improve our offering to fans… and most importantly, WIN football games,” Brady wrote in a statement on X following his approval to join the Raiders ownership.
The team’s next coach will be the team’s fifth since moving from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020; the first since Brady’s involvement with the Raiders. Local football fans in Las Vegas feel more optimistic now that Brady will be a part of the decision.
“He’ll have a hand in the selection of the coach and a hand in the selection of the quarterback,” speculated Gary Long, who covered the NFL as a sports reporter in Miami before moving to Las Vegas in retirement. “Whether it’s great improvement like the [Denver] Broncos had or the [Washington] Capitals had–both of them in the playoffs–I don’t know. It takes time, but it could be an overtime thing if they get a quarterback. They could beat the odds.”
They could beat the odds.
Chuck Esposito, the Race & Sports Book Director at Red Rock Casino, knows better than most not to bet against the seven-time Super Bowl Champion. He believes Brady’s NFL dominance is likely to carry over into the front office.
“He’s won more Super Bowls than the number of coaching changes they’ve had of late,” said Esposito. “I think ‘the Brady factor’ is going to be big.”
Esposito also noted that Brady’s influence on the Raiders’ quarterback situation will be a difference-maker in a hyper-competitive AFC West division in which every team besides the Raiders made the playoffs. The Raiders do not a clear starting quarterback.
“I think you have to really look at the quarterback position,” he said. “I know teams like to play in the trenches, but you play in a division with Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes and young quarterbacks so you really need to go out and get that quarterback and that coach. In tandem they can grow together moving forward.”
