The Raiders didn’t merely neglect to interview Mike Vrabel earlier than he landed with the Patriots.
Vrabel informed his former Patriots teammate Tom Brady — who owns a minority stake within the Raiders — that he most likely was going to finish up again in New England, in keeping with an NFL Community report.
That explains why the Raiders didn’t significantly pursue Vrabel for his or her emptiness, whereas the Jets and Bears each interviewed Vrabel. Time wasted for each groups, apparently, and perhaps a method for Vrabel to create leverage and drive the Patriots to behave rapidly.
“The most-rumored landing spot for Mike Vrabel for months was with the Las Vegas Raiders considering that they have his old friend and teammate Tom Brady now there as the minority owner and, in fact, running their current head coaching search,” insider Tom Pelissero mentioned. “My understanding is the Raiders never requested an interview or tried to bring Mike Vrabel in because Vrabel essentially told Tom Brady, ‘I’m going to end up going back to New England.’”
Whereas everybody assumed that Vrabel would return to New England, the place he received three Tremendous Bowls as a participant, as quickly as Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft fired one other favourite son (Jerod Mayo) within the hours after the regular-season finale, it nonetheless is icky if Vrabel was brazenly treating his touchdown spot as a formality.
Due to the Rooney Rule, the Patriots needed to interview two minority candidates earlier than making a rent even when they’d zeroed in on Vrabel.
Former NFL offensive coordinators Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich — each of whom are out of the league and thus obtainable for fast in-person interviews — had been interviewed.
NFL Community additionally reported that Brady is personally recruiting Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
Johnson’s work with quarterback Jared Goff makes him one of the vital fascinating candidates for all vacancies, however the Raiders don’t have a franchise quarterback in place, which might appear to be a strike in opposition to them in Johnson’s eyes.
At the least till the G.O.A.T. quarterback targets you.
