The Las Vegas Raiders will be searching for a new coach again, but for the first time since Reggie McKenzie hired Dennis Allen, it appears the team is allowing a general manager to lead the search. John Spytek was brought in at the same time as Pete Carroll last year, and didn’t have much input into that decision.
Spytek will have to work closely with minority owner Tom Brady, who should have a strong say over the matter. Since this is Spytek’s first coaching search, it’s difficult to know who he might target.
If Brady is leading the charge, there are some obvious candidates he might look at. He tried to go with a coach he never worked with when he hired Carroll. Since that didn’t work out, he could choose to go with a known commodity.
Former New England Patriots assistant and current Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores has recently been linked to the Raiders’ job. He spent over a decade working with Brady in New England, and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported that the two have a good relationship. This led ESPN’s Benjamin Solak to predict that Flores will be the coach the Raiders end up hiring.
“If Carroll goes one-and-done, Brady will call an old New England friend to be head coach: current Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores,” Solak wrote. “He’ll get a well-deserved second crack at a head coaching gig after getting fired by the Dolphins in 2022.”
Hiring Flores Could Stick It to the NFL
A big reason why Flores isn’t a head coach right now is that he is currently suing the NFL. Many teams wouldn’t want to risk irking the league, so they won’t touch Flores.
The Raiders are not one of those teams. In fact, they might be even more incentivized to irk the NFL, per Florio.
“The Flores lawsuit is still pending,” Florio wrote. “For some teams (including those who are named defendants to the case — Giants, Broncos, Texans, and Dolphins) that would be an issue. For a team like the Raiders, which has a history of litigation against the league, it may not matter. Especially after the manner in which someone saw fit to force out coach Jon Gruden in 2021.
“From a coaching standpoint, Flores fits with the widespread trend of finding a coach who is the exact opposite of the last guy. Carroll is a rah-rah, player-friendly coach. Flores is no-nonsense and Belichickian.”
Flores Would Be Risky Hire
There’s no denying that Flores is at least a good head coach and an elite defensive coordinator. He had the Miami Dolphins heading in the right direction before he was surprisingly fired.
However, the Raiders tried to embrace the Patriot Way when they hired Josh McDaniels, and that was an unmitigated disaster. Flores is different, as he has proven that he can be successful as a head coach, but he definitely has some of the same personality traits that have led to Bill Belichick disciples struggling to lead teams.
The upside with Flores is huge. He’s a defensive genius and still young, but there’s also a chance he could alienate the entire team the way McDaniels did.
Raiders Predicted to Make Head Coaching Hire That Could Irk NFL