It's difficult to recall a time in NFL history where so much of the discourse heading into Wild Card Weekend was on the coaches who weren't coaching in the Playoffs. But with seven job openings, plus Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, and Mike Vrabel all on the open market, and with Jim Harbaugh looming, it's understandable that this is where we're at. One of those available jobs is in Las Vegas, where the Raiders are weighing whether or not to bring back popular interim head coach Antonio Pierce. Pierce seemingly has the full support of the locker room, with Maxx Crosby even indicating he'd want to be traded if Pierce didn't return. But that won't stop the rumor mill from running, and one NFL insider is stoking that flame.
“If (Tom) Brady is going to be involved in this coaching search, you know who he's very close with. The guy he played eight years with in New England,” NFL insider Albert Breer shared with Colin Cowherd (h/t Kameron Duncan of The Spun). The guy Tom Brady played eight years with in New England is former Tennessee Titans head coach, and Patriots All-Pro linebacker, Mike Vrabel. Vrabel is arguably the hottest coaching candidate out there whose last name isn't Harbaugh, having turned a Tennessee Titans team that had made one playoff appearance in the nine years prior to his arrival into a perennial AFC contender that made the Playoffs three consecutive seasons for the first time since the Titans were still calling themselves the Houston Oilers.
Now of course, as Breer stated, this comes down to how involved Tom Brady, who may or may not soon acquire an ownership stake in the Raiders, is in the search for Las Vegas' next head coach. Either way, the Raiders would be an enticing landing spot for Vrabel, who wanted more control of football operations in Tennessee than he was given. “The Raiders could offer Vrabel the opportunity to set up the whole team in his image, which was sort of what he was looking to do in Tennessee,” Breer said.
Would bringing in an established head coach like Vrabel be worth it if it were going to ruffle feathers in the Raiders locker room? It may not be, and that's why Antonio Pierce remains the favorite to land the Raiders job. But the thought of Brady and Vrabel teaming up again would certainly be an intriguing prospect for Raiders fans.
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