Pete Carroll wasn’t the Raiders first choice to their head coach a year ago, and it’s also no secret who Tom Brady wanted to hire.

Last week, league insider Tony Pauline talked about the role of first-year GM John Spytek in Carroll’s hire, and it sounds like Brady more or less let Spytek sit it out.

“According to sources, Spytek did not have much say in the hiring of Carroll,” Pauline reported on Monday.

For anyone wondering who Spytek would have wanted as the head coach, it sounds like it might have been his former offensive coordinator in Tampa.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Adam Hill discussed last year’s offseason on his most recent podcast and said he believes Spytek wanted to hire Liam Coen.

“I would bet a large amount of money that John Spytek already has a list [of coaching candidates when he was hired last year],” Hill said on the Vegas Nation First and 10 podcast.

“When he came in, he just didn’t get to go through that list because he wasn’t really in charge of the hire. I personally will feel forever that if John Spytek did the hire last year, Liam Coen would be the head coach of the Raiders. I feel that way.”

By most accounts, the decision makers in Las Vegas pivoted to Pete Carroll after losing Johnson to Chicago, but according to The Athletic’s Mike Jones, Coen was very much in the mix for the job.

“The Raiders wanted Liam Coen to be their head coach, but wound up with Pete Carroll, who — given the state of the franchise — is probably better suited for the job anyway,” Jones reported in June.

In hindsight, Carroll wasn’t better suited for the job and hiring Coen probably would have worked out a little better.

But Hill also made a statement that no one would agree with as of Friday evening.

In his discussion with fellow beat writer Vinny Bonsignore, Hill said he believes Cam Ward was a better prospect in 2025 than Fernando Mendoza is this year.

That statement puts Hill in alignment with a hot take from Bomani Jones that is the early front runner for most ridiculous statement of the year.

“I got people asking me [about] Fernando Mendoza. Is he what the Raiders need and I watched Mendoza. We’ll talk a little bit more about that game, and Mendoza looks like something I’ve seen very many times, which is a very good college quarterback,” Jones said on The Right Time with Bomani Jones.

“I know what the no. 1 pick in the draft look like. That ain’t it. Even if you think Cam Ward’s not going to be that guy, you look at Cam Ward with the Titans and you’re like ‘That guy was the no. 1 pick in the draft.’ You see that.”

x: @raidersbeat

FIRST AND 10 Podcast: Big Changes Set Up Big Off-season

In this episode of the FIRST AND 10 Podcast, Vegas Nation’s Vinny Bonsignore and Adam Hill talk about Raiders General Manager John Spytek’s comments about the future of the franchise following the firing of Head Coach Pete Carroll, and the futures of Maxx Crosby’ and Geno Smith.