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By Reice Shipley
Contributing Sports Writer
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The Las Vegas Raiders' offseason acquisitions of veteran quarterback Geno Smith and former Super Bowl-winning head coach Pete Carroll have not gone to plan thus far. As a result, NBC Sports NFL insider Mike Florio is ready to point fingers at who he believes may be the biggest factor in the team's shortcomings.
Following the team's latest loss in Week 12 to the Cleveland Browns, the Raiders made several changes to their coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and senior offensive assistant Bob Bicknell took the fall for the team's struggles, being relieved of their duties on Sunday night and Monday morning, respectively.
While the Raiders' offense has certainly been a problem, the entire construction of the team and coaching staff certainly seems to need some revisiting, given where Las Vegas currently stands.
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Mike Florio spoke to exactly this during Monday's edition of his podcast, "Pro Football Talk Live", assigning much of the blame to Tom Brady for his influence on decisions made by Raiders majority owner Mark Davis.
"I’m just going to say this. The heat, the pressure, and the focus are going to be more and more on Tom Brady because Mark Davis is doing whatever he tells him,” said Florio. "Brady is partially responsible for the current state of the team. He was involved in the hiring of Pete Carroll. He was involved in the hiring of Chip Kelly. He was involved in the decision to make Geno Smith the quarterback.
"It’s just not working. That’s the thing, Tom. You want to do this, but you can’t clone yourself. One to be the Raiders owner, the other to work for FOX. If this doesn’t work, the blame falls on you. Nobody else, Tom, you’re taking the blame. It’s not working, and it’s splashing onto you. So don’t act like you’ve got a bunch of other things to do or that you’ve delegated. No, it’s on you if this team continues to stink."
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It's unclear exactly which decisions Brady may or may not have signed off on. His involvement in the day-to-day operations in the Raiders organization has been highly speculated about without any clear answer.
That being said, if Brady did indeed sign off on most of the current iteration of the team, it's hard to disagree with Florio's assessment that the seven-time Super Bowl champion deserves his fair share of blame.
Maybe Brady's ownership role in Las Vegas will look better from a long-term perspective. Though clearly, there is plenty he and Davis will need to fix in order to get to the point of this partnership looking like anything other than a complete disaster.
For more on Tom Brady, the Las Vegas Raiders, and all things NFL, head over to Newsweek Sports.
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