It was widely believed even before the Las Vegas Raiders parted ways with head coach Antonio Pierce following the 2024 NFL regular season that Raiders minority owner Tom Brady could target former New England Patriots teammate Mike Vrabel for the job. However, Vrabel officially returned to the Patriots to become their next head coach on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero revealed that the Raiders never came all that close to winning Vrabel’s services.
“The most rumored landing spot for Mike Vrabel for months was with the Las Vegas Raiders considering they have his old friend and teammate, Tom Brady, there as the minority owner and running their coaching search,” Pelissero said during Sunday’s edition of NFL Network’s “The Insiders” program, as shared by Lauren Campbell of MassLive. “My understanding is the Raiders never requested an interview or tried to bring Mike Vrabel in because Vrabel essentially told Tom Brady, ‘I’m gonna end up going back to New England.’ Other teams were aware that was the likely landing spot for Mike Vrabel for quite some time.”
Vrabel and Brady earned three Super Bowl rings as teammates with the Patriots from 2001-08, and the former was inducted into the franchise’s Hall of Fame in the fall of 2023. More recently, Vrabel went 54-45 and won Associated Press Coach of the Year as head coach of the Tennessee Titans from 2018–23. He then serv ed as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns from March 2024 up until he was permitted to seek out head-coaching opportunities in late December.
As for Brady, he reportedly has an active role in Las Vegas’ search for Pierce’s replacement and may or may not have tried to convince former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to leave the North Carolina Tar Heels and return to the NFL. There’s no sign Belichick will ditch North Carolina without having ever coached a game for that program, and the Raiders were recently linked with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
Johnson is seen as one of the top candidates of the ongoing hiring cycle and seemingly could have a say in who Las Vegas hires to replace general manager Tom Telesco. The Raiders fired Telesco last week.
