It has been hard to pin the Las Vegas Raiders down during this coaching cycle. After firing Pete Carroll, John Spytek and Tom Brady were tasked with spearheading the search for the next head coach in Las Vegas, and they have cast an incredibly wide and diverse net, which is a good thing.
On the one hand, every coach that the Raiders have sought for a second interview thus far has come from a defensive background. On the other hand, they haven't gotten a fair shake at some of the best offensive candidates because their respective teams are still alive in the postseason.
Almost every candidate has one thing in common, however, which is that they are under 50 years old, with Vance Joseph being the exception. In fact, most of them are in their mid-40s, at the oldest. But the youngest gun of the group, Davis Webb, who is just 31 years old, may make the most sense.
Davis Webb continues to be painted as candidate Raiders should fawn over
Webb, the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for the Denver Broncos, has never even been an offensive coordinator or play-caller at any level. His NFL playing career only ended in 2022. On paper, he doesn't make a lot of sense and would be a massive long shot.
However, Webb is at the forefront of so many head coach discussions for a reason. He's a young savant and a fast riser in the profession, and Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer spoke on The Rich Eisen Show about why he could make sense as the head man in Las Vegas.
"Davis Webb, to me, might be the most interesting name, though. He's incredibly well thought of. He hasn't coached for very long, (which) is the problem, but he played in the league recently," Breer said. "I think Davis Webb has a ton of head coach qualities. And I think part of it is the same thing with the Rams. The Rams had with McVay, right? I remember talking to the Rams front office people when they hired Sean, and the whole thing was, 'Well, we can hire him now, a year early, or we just won't get him at all because if he doesn't get a job this year, he's going to get one next year, and we're not going to be looking for one next year, right? So, I think with Davis, that's part of the logic, is 'Do we go in early on a guy, a year early with a guy, bring in an experienced offensive coordinator who can work with the quarterback, and just bet on this guy's upside?' And so, I think Davis Webb has a shot in Vegas under that sort of setup."
Now, Las Vegas, in particular, makes sense for Webb because, as Breer also pointed out in the same interview, some of Webb's presumed offensive coordinator candidates are coaches whom he previously played under and have close ties to Brady.
"[Webb's] got a passing relationship with Tom Brady, but he's got two offensive coordinator names that I know are on his list that have tight connections to Brady. One is Brian Daboll, who could wind up going to Tennessee as the coordinator, could go to Buffalo as the head coach, but Brian Daboll is one name for Davis Webb. They were together both in New York and Buffalo when Davis was a player. And the other is Kliff Kingsbury, who almost went to Vegas a couple years ago as a coordinator, who's tight with Brady."
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Breer is a well-sourced reporter who can gain inside intel and connect dots very well. That's what he accomplished there. But Webb also has the backing of several coaches who have worked with him, and a handful of his former teammates have already publicly sung his praises as well.
Jon Feliciano, a former Raiders offensive lineman and a teammate of Webb's for four straight years on the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills from 2019 to 2022, spoke on the Yahoo Sports Daily podcast about Webb, and he gave yet another ringing endorsement.
"[Webb] is a hell of a coach. He was the definition of a player-coach, especially [with the Giants], he was doing advanced scouting for the team that we would play the following week. ... First few years [in Buffalo], he was all about doing the coach's jobs," Feliciano said. "I think Davis is going to be one of the best coaches in the league in the next decade. I'm not the only one."
Should the Raiders actually entrust the 31-year-old Webb with the keys to the franchise, it sounds like the fanbase can rest assured that they made a good pick. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone, whether they be a former teammate or a member of the media, with anything bad to say about Webb.
As Las Vegas' front office treks on in their journey to find the franchise's next head coach, they cannot ignore the mounting pile of evidence that tells them Webb will be a great leader. Whether they choose to act on it is one thing. But it's undoubtedly there.