Tom Brady joined the Las Vegas Raiders as a minority owner in October 2024 with the intention of becoming an influential figure behind the scenes for an NFL franchise and taking them to a winning campaign. Brady has built a reputation on winning, accountability, and an unwavering demand for excellence. So, when the Raiders’ 2025 season spiraled into disaster, the seven-time Super Bowl champion reportedly didn’t take it lightly.

“A former teammate of Tom Brady told me, ‘I think Tom was sick as hell. All he wants to do is win. I see all this sh*t about his ego, and staying away from the Raiders because they were losing, and it is just bullsh*t. His name is on that team now; he will not allow them to lose,” reported Hondo Carpenter of Sports Illustrated.

Tom Brady’s disappointment may not have been without reason. The Raiders finished with an abysmal 3–14 record, and out of their 14 losses, 9 were by double digits. They also earned the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft for the first time since 2007.

For starters, one of the biggest reasons behind the Raiders’ disappointing season was their coaching staff. After missing out on Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears, minority owner Tom Brady and the front office settled on hiring Pete Carroll as the head coach. Contrary to expectations, Carroll’s tenure lasted only one season. There were multiple issues under Pete’s play-calling. The Raiders were unable to sustain late drives; there were too many late-game errors, and the former HC’s reluctance to trust the rookie class kept piling.

Then came the players’ struggle to follow offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s playbook. Brady was a “big advocate of bringing in” Chip Kelly as the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the league, but the Raiders fired him just 11 games into the season.

According to The Athletic, Brady “shared with some people close to him his disappointment in the team’s overall performance. His frustrations go beyond the offense, too.”

Las Vegas brought Caroll’s old quarterback, Geno Smith, from the Seattle Seahawks as a high-profile bridge QB, and also drafted running back Ashton Jeanty with the sixth overall pick. However, Smith experienced a massive regression from his prior Pro Bowl seasons in Seattle. Smith and the Raiders offense flatlined, ranking dead last in the league by averaging a meager 14.2 points per game.

Now, behind all these developments, Brady stood as one of the key decision-makers, alongside other stakeholders. Despite his status as a minority owner, Brady reportedly operated as a primary decision-maker. And much of that credit goes to the Raiders’ owner, Mark Davis.

“Although Tom can’t play, I think he can help us select a quarterback in the future and potentially train as well,” Davis said in 2024 after an NFL owners meeting in Atlanta.

“I want Tom to have a huge voice, no question about it. It’s part of building the infrastructure of the organization,” Davis said at the next owners meeting in December 2024. “A football person on that side of it that’s not a coach or a general manager. He’s somebody who can oversee the whole picture. I believe Tom, come time, will be the person who can do that.”

But when the decisions backfired, criticisms followed. Yet, Brady remains optimistic about the future as he continues to influence the decision-making for the Raiders’ front office.

Heading into the 2026 season, Brady was heavily embedded in the hiring process. He personally led meetings with Klint Kubiak, who was hired as the head coach after winning Super Bowl LX as the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator. Brady’s direct pitching was a primary reason Kubiak reportedly accepted the job to revitalize the flatlined offense.

Apart from that, signing veterans like Kirk Cousins and mentoring rookies like Fernando Mendoza, Brady appears determined to turn around the 2025 season collapse. However, only time will tell how everything turns out for the Las Vegas Raiders and the seven-time Super Bowl champion.