{"id":698365,"date":"2026-01-23T07:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698365\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T07:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:39:19","slug":"raiders-rumors-brady-spytek-whitmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698365\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Rumors: Brady, Spytek, Whitmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Spytek was hired before Pete Carroll, who has since been fired. This year\u2019s Raiders HC search \u2014 their fourth in the past five offseasons \u2014 will be the GM\u2019s first with true involvement. Spytek was not involved in the Carroll hire last year, ESPN\u2019s Kalyn Kahler and Ryan McFadden indicate<\/a> in an expansive look at the Raiders\u2019 present state of affairs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The team hired Spytek two days before<\/a> hiring Carroll last year. This is not uncommon for teams seeking to fill HC and GM positions in one offseason. Ryan Poles technically arrived before Matt Eberflus in 2022, but he was not a key player in that search. Spytek, though, is the point man for the Raiders in-house, as he is running things locally while Tom Brady \u2014 who has been involved from afar since being approved as a minority owner in fall 2024 \u2014 made \u201cfive or six\u201d appearances at the team facility in 2025, Raiders left tackle Kolton Miller<\/a> estimated.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Raiders Made Push For Jesse Minter]<\/a><\/p>\n

Brady did play the lead role in the Raiders firing Tom Telesco and hiring Spytek, his former college teammate who later ended up in the Buccaneers\u2019 front office during the QB legend\u2019s Tampa stopover. Brady later led the Raiders\u2019 pursuit of Ben Johnson and then played the central role in a failed Matthew Stafford<\/a> recruitment. The 47-year-old QB retiree-turned-FOX analyst was believed to be against a Sam Darnold<\/a> free agent signing<\/a>, and he was a key figure in the trade for Geno Smith<\/a>, per an agent of a Raiders player (via Kahler and McFadden). That certainly appeased Carroll, but the Carroll-Smith reunion backfired quickly.<\/p>\n

Brady will continue to carry plenty of say with the Raiders, who are believed to be pursuing an offense-oriented HC<\/a> to pair with expected No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza<\/a>. But Spytek will be the one running things from inside, as Brady will continue with his FOX role for a third season in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy preparation is very much centered around what I have to do in broadcasting,\u201d Brady said of his Raiders role, via The Athletic\u2019s Andrew Marchand<\/a>. \u201cI love, obviously, having a chance to be involved with the Raiders. To be a former player and have a minority ownership is like a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t afford to pay to be a general partner. I did very well in my career. It\u2019s awesome to kind of help shape and strategize and be a visionary for a team. I love being involved in football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Raiders will be expected to move on from Smith, who appears destined to follow Jimmy Garoppolo<\/a> and Gardner Minshew<\/a> as Vegas QB acquisitions to last one season. Although Smith signed a two-year, $75MM extension, it will cost the Raiders just $18.5MM in dead money to drop him. That amount would be lessened in the post-June 1 scenario.<\/p>\n

Mendoza is the latest QB to rocket to the top sector of the draft with a dominant college season. The Raiders secured the No. 1 overall pick, shelving Brock Bowers<\/a> and, more controversially, Maxx Crosby<\/a> (who has since undergone knee surgery for an injury he believed he could play through<\/a>), for the season\u2019s final two games. One of Mendoza\u2019s Indiana coaches, co-OC\/QBs coach Chandler Whitmer is a name to monitor regarding a Raiders role, the Las Vegas Review-Journal\u2019s Vincent Bonsignore tweets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whitmer, 34, was on all three Brandon Staley Chargers staffs before landing with the Falcons in 2024. He joined the Hoosiers last year, and his role in Mendoza\u2019s Heisman-winning season and the team\u2019s 16-0 national championship season certainly brought a stock boost.<\/p>\n

The Raiders, though, still have a head coach to hire before turning their attention to assistants.\u00a0Brady heavily influenced<\/a> Chip Kelly\u2018s move from the college ranks back to the NFL; that would make another college-to-NFL hire draw some scrutiny. The Raiders gave their one-and-done OC a $6MM-per-year deal only to fire him in-season. Kelly is now Northwestern\u2019s OC<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Spytek was hired before Pete Carroll, who has since been fired. This year\u2019s Raiders HC search \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[101822,7,1507,4949,1744,393,2455,2454,6563,6,3976,525,1369],"class_list":{"0":"post-698365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-chandler-whitmer","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-geno-smith","11":"tag-john-spytek","12":"tag-las-vegas","13":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","14":"tag-lasvegas","15":"tag-lasvegasraiders","16":"tag-maxx-crosby","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-pete-carroll","19":"tag-raiders","20":"tag-tom-brady"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115943281665312791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}