Prior to the Las Vegas Raiders hiring Pete Carroll as their new head coach, the team had their fair share of options.
One of those options, though, seemed to excite fans more than the others.
For a little while during this search, it appeared as though former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was becoming a frontrunner for this job. Of course, Johnson would end up accepting the head coaching gig with the Chicago Bears.
But, in the week leading up to Johnson taking the Bears job, there were multiple reports and rumors which stated the Raiders were becoming a real possibility for Johnson. For a few days in a row, some fans were actually beginning to believe Johnson could be this team's next head coach.
And then, reality set in. Johnson took the Bears job and the Raiders had to look elsewhere.
As it turns out, though, the Raiders were less of a possibility for Johnson than any of us thought. After all, it's hard to accept a job without an offer.
Mark Davis reveals the Raiders never even made an offer to Ben Johnson
In a recent chat with media members, Raiders owner Mark Davis commented on Johnson being a candidate for Las Vegas to which he responded with an answer not many Raiders fans will appreciate.
"No, we didn't think we had Ben Johnson. We never made an offer to Ben Johnson," Davis said.
For Raiders fans, that's a little painful to hear. If Vegas was, indeed, interested in Johnson as a serious candidate, why wouldn't they have made him an offer? It seems negligent to supposedly pursue the top candidate all the way down to the wire only to come out and say you didn't even make him an offer.
Now, in the end, fans have to understand that Johnson should never have been a realistic candidate, anyway.
Regardless of what rumors and reports came out connecting the two sides, the Raiders and Johnson never fit. Johnson wanted a quarterback he could win with; either that, or a path to getting one.
The sad reality in Las Vegas simply says this team isn't close to getting a quarterback they can win with. Even if Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders fell to them at pick no. 6 in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft, neither one of them would have been a top-10 pick in last year's class. This year's class is much weaker.
As for free agency, well, most of us know by now that the free agency pool doesn't have any bonafide franchise passers.
Johnson was never coming to Vegas, but Davis' words still don't hurt any less.