When the Las Vegas Raiders got Tom Brady approved as a minority owner back in 2024, the idea wasn't simply to line his pockets. The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback would consult with the team's leadership and be a selling point for those considering a move to Las Vegas.
Last offseason, the Raiders went big fishing for hotshot head coach candidate Ben Johnson. The then-Detroit Lions offensive coordinator was the crown jewel of the coaching cycle, and he seemed heavily interested in the Silver and Black. Brady's presence, at least, got him to listen.
But Johnson was ultimately using the Raiders as leverage for the Chicago Bears' head coaching job, which his agent all but confessed to after the fact. Many in Raider Nation started to question Brady's true influence and involvement, if he couldn't get the big names to come to the desert.
Hiring Klint Kubiak, however, has redeemed Brady to the fanbase, giving him a do-over for the Johnson debacle.
Tom Brady makes up for Ben Johnson debacle with Klint Kubiak hire
After a month of waiting, the Raiders announced that they had officially hired Kubiak on Monday, and they introduced him to the local media on Tuesday. Brady had long fawned over Kubiak during his Fox Sports NFL broadcasts, and he got the coach that he so desired in this hiring cycle.
While other teams around the league panicked to hire their leaders with the promising prospective coaches still participating in the playoffs, Brady and John Spytek had faith in their process. And it all culminated in landing Kubiak, whom the tandem seemingly waited for and wanted all along.
A year ago, the Raiders put all of their eggs into the Ben Johnson basket. When he spurned the franchise because they didn't have a quarterback to work with, Las Vegas had to go with an aging Pete Carroll, who, at 73 years old when hired, was never going to be the long-term solution.
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This offseason, however, the Raiders had a plan. That started with shutting key players down toward the end of the 2025 NFL season and locking up the No. 1 pick in April's draft. That alone made the job in Las Vegas much more appealing.
The next step was landing a bright, young offensive mind like Kubiak, who was, in many ways, the most highly-regarded of the young coaches in this cycle. Unlike last year, Brady was able to grease the wheels and play things to a T. Las Vegas has its young coach, and soon it'll have its young QB.
A great reset.
Now, Spytek deserves his share of the credit, too. By all accounts, he seems like a great general manager to work with. But Brady was brought to the Raiders to be the big fisher, and he landed one in Kubiak. Hopefully, fans will soon forget about missing out on Johnson as Kubiak makes his mark.
Kubiak even said it himself during his introductory press conference:
"In the interview process, just the passion that [Brady] spoke with on all things football got me excited about the opportunity to work with him. Plenty has been said and speculated about how that relationship is going to go, and that's one of the main draws to come here: To work with [Brady], to work with Spy[tek]."