Tom Brady Won’t Be a Silent Observer After Becoming Co-Owner of the Raiders

Week 6 of the NFL regular season is over, and we’re coming to you from the swanky hotel in Atlanta that will host the NFL’s fall meeting…

• Tom Brady was approved Tuesday as minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders with great fanfare. Brady will own a 5% stake in the team, with another 5% going to his business partner, Tom Wagner, and 0.5% sold to his former Patriot teammate, Richard Seymour. In most cases, this type of participation in a team is almost ceremonial – you’ll have a good seat on game day and access to training, but you won’t have any real say in how a franchise is run.

The next question you’ll have is the one most team executives I’ve asked: How involved will Brady be in football operations?

An NFC executive told me via text message Monday night that he hopes Brady’s presence will help the franchise with sponsors and season ticket holders, and in recruiting the organization’s top talent across the board. levels (including players). Another NFC executive stated this and added, “The most interesting thing to me is if he decides he wants to be involved in the team instead of broadcasting… Maybe he gets more joy/energy running the Raiders than being at Fox.”

Brady, in turn, left some crumbs. He showed up at the Raiders’ last practice of 2023 while Antonio Pierce was the interim head coach and Champ Kelly was the interim GM. It caught the attention of everyone in the building as the team prepared to launch a head coach/GM search. Seymour was also on the search committee.

There has been an internal belief for some time that Brady will not be a silent observer after officially receiving his slice of the pie. Whether that happens now or a little further down the road, we’ll find out.

• The Davante Adams trade had been in the works for weeks, and Adams boarded a red-eye flight Monday night from Las Vegas to the East Coast while it was being finished. This is important because it shows that this wasn’t cobbled together at the last minute after the end of the game against the Buffalo Bills.

But it was a nod to Adams’ desire to play with Aaron Rodgers again, amid the feeling among the teams involved that the two had been working toward that conclusion all along (and that Adams gave the Raiders a second team to which he would be willing to go, the Saints, to help them negotiate the right trade with the Jets). It was also done at a cost that few, if any, teams would be willing to pay.

As it stands now, the Raiders get a third-round pick for Adams, who will become a second-rounder if Adams is a first- or second-team All-Pro (which isn’t likely, as he only has 18 receptions for 209 yards in 11 games). left), or the Jets (2–4) reach the AFC title game or the Super Bowl (in which case the pick would be between 61st and 64th). The fact that New York was willing to entertain the possibility of their second-round pick made their offer an exception.

Most teams saw Adams’ trade value based on his age (31) and the fact that his contract will hit an unreasonable, non-guaranteed number next year ($36 million) in the third or fourth round. Which is more or less why 30-something Stefon Diggs and Keenan Allen were moved in the offseason.

As for what’s left for Adams, an AFC executive who studied him for the possibility of a trade told me that Adams “is still sudden and explosive at the top of his routes, but some of his ability (running after catching) has regressed.” Which, of course, positions him as a short-term solution for the Jets, as other parts of his game could soon be gone as well.

• It’s fascinating to look now at how Raiders owner Mark Davis’ decision-making a year ago — cutting head coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler on Halloween — was impacted by the feedback he received from available players.

Davis spoke regularly throughout the year with Adams, Maxx Crosby and Josh Jacobs, and his testimony was instrumental in the cutting-edge plays the Raiders made. Less than a year later, two of the three are gone. And there’s no doubt the phone will ring for Crosby on November 5th.

• Related to all of this is the Haason Reddick situation. Giving up a third-rounder for Adams — the Jets actually have two of them after a draft-day trade last year with the Detroit Lions — could put New York in the hunt to recoup the pick, and Reddick’s price in the spring was of a third round selection.

Reddick now has a window to pursue a trade, and his new agent, Drew Rosenhaus, is working on it. There are plenty of teams out there that could use pass rush help before the Nov. 5 trade deadline (Detroit just made that list). That being said, Reddick won’t be a scheme fit for everyone, and his reputation for hunting down sacks, especially since he’s in a contract year, at the expense of his team, will make acquiring him a bust for some.

• The Bills were involved in Adams, and that influences their decision go get Amari Cooper. But interestingly, these players’ desires also played a role in all of this. The Bills never felt they had a chance against Adams because Adams wanted to play Rodgers (plus the associated cap implications). On the other hand, Cooper’s availability was at least in part a result of the Browns’ pursuit of Brandon Aiyuk this summer.

Cleveland’s willingness to pay Aiyuk near the top of the receiver market angered Cooper, who received a “commitment” raise earlier in the summer after being away from the team in the spring while seeking an extension. So things with Cooper were not good, and the restructuring, which gave Cooper a large signing bonus and reduced his salary to the minimum, put the Bills in a position to acquire him, and the Browns in a position to land a third-rounder. in the agreement.

• The NFL awarded Super Bowl LXII to Atlanta, and there’s a good chance this will be the first consecutive Super Bowl in the South. The Tennessee Titans’ new stadium, which shares the same name as the old one, is scheduled to open in 2027 , making Super Bowl LXIII on February 29 the first it would be eligible to host. And the NFL has already hinted that it is eager to hold its biggest event in Nashville, one of the fastest growing cities in America.

• It’s going to be an interesting week in Pittsburgh. Justin Fields has a lot of fans in the Steelers organization, has adapted well to what they are trying to do on offense and has an excellent relationship with the offensive coaches. There are many in that building who would prefer Fields to have the job. But Russell Wilson is now completely cleared and will have the chance to show what he can do with the starters in the coming days.

The Steelers will likely wait until the end of the week to make a final decision on who starts at quarterback. So it could be Fields for another game, given that his center is out and the Jets’ pass rush is tight. But another start from Fields could give Mike Tomlin more evidence that he should just do what his coaching staff has wanted him to do for some time.

• Coming out of Aidan Hutchinson surgery, the Lions aren’t closing the door on his return. The caveat: They would probably need to make it to the Super Bowl.

• Jerry Jones’ nervousness on Dallas radio Tuesday morning caught the attention of folks in the Cowboys organization, for sure — it was very strange for an owner who speaks very publicly.

• Finally, a surplus of my week 6 lessons on monday—I asked Houston Texans star Will Anderson Jr. shortly after his three-sack day against the New England Patriots what kind of difference playing alongside Danielle Hunter made for him. I thought his answer was very good. So here it is…

“I love Danielle,” Anderson said. “I love playing with him. I told him I appreciate him every time I see him in the building. He taught me a lot this year. It’s been great. Teams will chip us. Teams will double us. The teams will do everything they can to try and slow us down, but we keep cutting back. I have to give him a testimonial because he brings a very different dynamic to the group with his rush and style of play.

“We all feed off of it. He does a great job teaching us a lot of things. Having a guy like Danielle who is so experienced, who has already taken so many sacks, it’s great to play alongside him. I can’t thank him and appreciate him enough for what he’s done so far for me, the defensive line and this team.”