All Tom Brady knew in his NFL career was winning: 251 games, 35 playoffs and Seven Super Bowls.

So, when the five-time Super Bowl MVP was hired as a minority owner of the Raiders, the hope was that a much-needed injection of football knowledge — from the greatest to ever do it — would bring about change in Las Vegas.

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Brady’s arrival in Sin City was more than five years in the making, with Raiders owner Mark Davis first trying to lure the legendary quarterback to Vegas in 2019 when he became a free agent.

“He was supposed to be here in 2020,” Davis said of Brady on the team’s podcast, ‘Raiders: Talk of the Nation’ earlier this year.

“That’s where our relationship started… we didn’t sign him, but as I got to know him through that process, I let his agent know that when he was done playing, I would like him to be a part of our organisation.”

Brady ended up at Tampa Bay instead and won a Super Bowl while the Raiders, having instead decided to stick with veteran Derek Carr, finished with an 8-8 record and missed the playoffs in their first season after relocating from Oakland to Allegiant Stadium.

Missing the playoffs wasn’t anything new for the Raiders under Davis’ ownership. Since he took over in 2011, Las Vegas has featured in the postseason just twice and is yet to win a playoff game.

There has been plenty of turnover in the front office too, with five new general managers walking through the door along with seven head coaches.

Around the league, the Raiders had developed a reputation as a “floundering franchise” according to The Athletic’s Mike Sando.

Pete Carroll is on the hot seat. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP

“They see new minority owner Tom Brady trying to bring vision and stability to the franchise,” Sando wrote, adding that NFL executives also saw Brady’s credibility as a “leading reason” why former Detroit Lions offensive co-ordinator Ben Johnson may consider the vacant head coaching job in Vegas.

Johnson went to Chicago instead, but the Raiders were still able to land a top coaching candidate in Super Bowl winner Pete Carroll on a three-year deal.

Brady may have signed on at Vegas as a minority owner, but it was in name only. The reality, according to multiple reports, was that the seven-time Super Bowl champion played a key role in a big offseason of change.

Brady led a committee which ultimately decided on Carroll as the new head coach and John Spytek, a former college teammate of his who also worked with Brady in Tampa, as general manager.

One Cowboys writer told Las Vegas reporter Nick Walters earlier in the week that the Raiders are a “sleeping football giant”. “All it needs it a winning team,” the writer added.

Brady, of course, is the ultimate winner. But unless he magically comes out of retirement and suits up for the Raiders, it doesn’t look like they will be doing much of that anytime soon.

For all of the optimism that came with a new head coach and experienced quarterback in Geno Smith arriving, not much else changed.

In fact, this “floundering franchise” has only gone backwards. The Raiders currently sit 2-10 after their latest loss to the Chargers, dead-last in the AFC West.

The 31-14 defeat at the hands of their AFC West rivals was bad, but even worse was the 24-10 loss the week prior to the struggling Cleveland Browns with rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders making his first start.

“The Raiders just looked awful,” NFL broadcaster Andrew Siciliano said on Yahoo Sports’ Inside Coverage.

“Talking to some Raider people after the game, people who have been around the team for a long, long time, (they) said this is the worst team they could ever remember, and that is a massive, massive statement.”

Smith was hit 20 times by the Browns defence and sacked 10 times — a career-high mark and one shy of the team’s single-game franchise record of 11.

That says a lot considering the state of the offensive line Smith played behind in his final few years at Seattle, who surrendered at 39.4 per cent pressure rate (30th) and 8.3 per cent sack rate (24th) last season.

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Equally telling was the fact the usually calm and collected Smith flipped off Raiders fans after the Browns loss, later apologising for making a “poor judgment out of frustration”.

“It’s a really bad situation,” Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports said on Inside Coverage.

“A really, really bad situation.”

The Raiders announced shortly after the Cleveland game that offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who was being paid $6 million this season, had been fired.

That $6 million mark was double any other offensive coordinator in the NFL and while the team’s struggles were hardly on Kelly alone, the results on the field left the Raiders with little choice.

Among all 32 teams, Las Vegas was tied last at 15.0 points per game and 30th with 268.9 total yards per game at the time of Kelly’s dismissal while running back Ashton Jeanty, who was taken sixth overall in the 2025 draft, is nearly being outproduced on the ground by Kyle Monangai, a seventh-round pick.

That is an indictment, not on Jeanty as a talent, but on how bad this offensive line has been at run blocking.

Now, this is where Brady comes in, because while it is hard to place much of the blame on the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback since there is so much secrecy surrounding just how involved he is in day-to-day operations, Kelly himself confirmed on The Audible podcast that Brady “kind of represented the ownership” during his interview process.

Former Raiders beat writer for The Athletic, Tashan Reed, even wrote in September that while Brady is “working to frame his Raiders capacity as a passive one, the truth is his fingerprints are all over the franchise”.

That reporting came from discussions with team and league sources, with Reed adding that Brady’s impact had been “felt every step of the way”.

For example, Reed reported that Brady along with other new minority owners “pushed for a greater investment in football operations” and “was involved in several meetings with the coaching staff and front office to lay out the plan at quarterback”.

Even Carroll said in his introductory press conference in January that Brady had been “integrally involved” while Davis said in December he wanted Brady to “have a huge voice”.

“This is his opportunity to put his stamp on a franchise, and so we’re excited to represent that,” Carroll added.

That is at odds with what Brady himself told The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis earlier in the year when asked to clarify his role, describing it as a “long-term, kind of behind-the-scenes type role” that will “support the team and the leadership and the overall vision for success.”

Things aren’t going well in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)Source: AP

Kelly later said during the season that he did not talk game plans with Brady and that while he used the legendary quarterback “as a resource”, it did not go much beyond that.

Sideline reporter Peter Schrager, in contrast, said during the broadcast of Las Vegas’ first game against the Los Angeles Chargers that Kelly himself said he talked to Brady “two to three times a week” and that they “go through film, they go through the game plan.”

As for why all of this is important, for the most part the spotlight on Brady’s involvement with the Raiders has largely centred around a potential conflict of interest given his role as a broadcaster with Fox.

In the context of the team’s struggles, on the other hand, Brady — given his standing in the league — was always going to be at the centre of all the headlines in Vegas regardless of whether it worked out or not.

To that effect, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported last week that Brady was a “big advocate” of bringing Kelly in to run the offence and “has shared with some people close to him his disappointment in the team’s overall performance”.

“His frustrations go beyond the offence, too,” added Russini.

The defence, led by game-wrecking defensive end Maxx Crosby, however, has not been given much of a chance with how often they have been on the field after constant three-and-outs or turnovers by this Raiders offence.

Geno Smith has struggled. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

The offensive line is the biggest issue, but Kelly’s play-calling was reportedly not much better with NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero revealing the extent of the “dysfunction” in Las Vegas under the former Ohio State offensive coordinator.

“There were times, I was told, where Chip Kelly was repeatedly botching the play calls,” Pelissero said on ‘The Rich Eisen Show’.

“He was, for instance, supposed to be tagging a motion on a play so the receiver is on the left and not the right. He forgets to say it so Geno Smith is going to the line of scrimmage and going, ‘This doesn’t look right’, and they’re trying to run a play.

“It happened in a third down the other day. There were times, I was told, where Chip had on several occasions called a play which was either not in the game plan or not installed at all.”

Although NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport later made a stunning claim which put the spotlight squarely on Carroll, reporting that the Raiders head coach had been using outdated offensive game plan from his time at Seattle to the point the offence had become alarmingly predictable.

“Talking to people who know this offence very well, people who’ve studied this offence, played against it, they do not believe it was Chip Kelly’s offence. They believe it was Pete Carroll’s offence, specifically the Pete Carroll offence from Seattle 2023,” Rapoport reported. “It sounds to me like if Chip Kelly had to do this again, he would not have taken this job.”

As for the offensive line, injuries have decimated an already suspect group with Kolton Miller and Jackson Powers-Johnson out of action.

The loss to Cleveland was a low point, with Smith pressured on a season-high 23 dropbacks according to Next Gen Stats and while Kelly’s dismissal was hardly a surprise, the fact the Raiders’ offensive line coach still has a job continues to raise eyebrows.

Although, it too isn’t much of a surprise. Why? Well, allow Schwab of Yahoo Sports to explain.

“Nepotism is a big problem in NFL coaching. It is,” Schwab said on Inside Coverage.

“You get so many percentage of coaches who just get a job based on who their dad is. Pete Carroll came on, and two of his assistant coaches are his sons.

“The Raiders have the worst offensive line in football, and it’s not even close. I feel bad for Geno Smith. Not that Geno Smith is covering himself in glory, but what do you do when you’re playing behind the worst offensive line in football?

“The Raiders’ offensive line coach, the worst offensive line in the NFL, is Brennan Carroll. That is Pete Carroll’s son. He ain’t lost his job, has he?”

He hasn’t, and neither has the head coach. In fact, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported that Carroll is expected to return in 2026. Schwab struggles to see why.

Carroll may get a reprieve. Chris Unger/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP

“I think they’re the worst team in football right now behind the Titans, and I don’t see how Pete Carroll comes back,” he said.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to bring back a 75-year-old coach after the season is out.”

So, what comes next when the Super Bowl-winning coach that was supposed to turn your franchise around is instead at risk of being one-and-done while the quarterback who was meant to be the answer, at least in the short-term, looks to have hit a wall?

The Raiders could have the first overall pick in the upcoming draft, with Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza the consensus top option in an otherwise underwhelming class at the position.

But even withstanding the injuries, this was an offensive line that also needs an injection of talent while the receiving corps is also relatively uninspiring outside of tight end Brock Bowers.

While the Brady of old was able to dissect defences with surgical precision, even this seems a problem beyond his capabilities. Not that it is his problem to solve anyway.

That falls on Davis, the majority owner.

But as Pelissero said last offseason on ‘The Rich Eisen Show’, even if Brady isn’t the only one calling the shots he has a voice. “This is the Tom Brady show,” he said.

Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson said on Inside Coverage that the Kelly hiring has been “described as sort of a Brady-inspired move”, while it has been “floated out there” that Brady “preferred” Smith over Sam Darnold, who is running one of the most efficient offences in the NFL at Seattle.

Tom Brady. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

“Also not great,” Robinson said, adding that he spoke to one former Patriots staffer who said they think Carroll, Davis and Brady are all on different pages.

Now, obviously you can argue that Darnold, who has typically struggled under pressure, would not be near the same player he is in Seattle if playing behind this offensive line and with Kelly calling the plays.

But either way, Smith is not the future and not winning enough games to justify the two-year contract he signed earlier this year with $66.5 million guaranteed.

So, where to from here? To some people Brady’s role may seem largely ceremonial, but given Davis’ track record of cycling through coaches and front-office heads, he will still be looked at as the saviour regardless of how relevant his extensive experience on the field may be.

Although given he was sitting in Dallas calling the Eagles-Cowboys game last week instead of watching Las Vegas hit a new low against Cleveland, he may not even have a true feel for what the answer is.

“It is genuinely hilarious that Tom Brady spearheaded every decision that has made the Raiders the most directionless and unwatchable franchise in the league, and he’s just sat in Dallas calling the game of the most well-run team in the league,” The Guardian’s Ollie Connolly wrote on Twitter.

“I think having your football czar split time between calling games, Riyadh, YouTube, Crypto, and Birmingham is not smart.”

NBC Sports NFL insider Mike Florio, meanwhile, said on Pro Football Talk Live that the “heat, pressure and focus are going to be more and more on Tom Brady”.

“Because Mark Davis is doing whatever he tells him,” Florio added.

“Brady is partially responsible for the current state of the team. He was involved in the hiring of Pete Carroll. He was involved in the hiring of Chip Kelly. He was involved in the decision to make Geno Smith the quarterback.

“It’s just not working. That’s the thing, Tom. You want to do this, but you can’t clone yourself— one to be the Raiders owner, the other to work for FOX. If this doesn’t work, the blame falls on you.”

In reality, even if Brady is the one that will generate the most headlines, he is hardly the only person to blame for the mess that is the Las Vegas Raiders. He won’t be the one single-handedly turning it around either.

But regardless of how involved he actually is, the seven-time Super Bowl champion will remain one of the faces of this failed franchise simply due to the fact that he is Tom Brady.

And if one thing is for sure, any concerns about him giving the Raiders a competitive edge because of the access he receives as a Fox announcer are long gone now.