Picture Allegiant Stadium under the Las Vegas lights and “Brady” stitched on the owner’s jacket, not a jersey. Different stage, same pressure, only the scoreboard looks much, much worse. The Las Vegas Raiders wanted a culture reset. What they got instead was a 2-9 mess and a spotlight on Tom Brady, their most famous minority owner.

Brady isn’t just along for the ride. He owns 5% of the Raiders and stands front and center on big calls, whether it’s coaching hires or QB trades. Controlling owner and managing general partner Mark Davis wanted Brady’s competitive mentality to reshape the building. Instead, key decisions have landed with a thud, and Brady’s taking the heat now.

“The first scapegoat was offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who was hired (as many believe) at Brady’s recommendation, if not urging,” writes Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “The chunky effort to justify firing Kelly indirectly splashes mud on Brady’s judgment, if he did indeed target and recommend Kelly. The overall performance of the team casts doubt on the value of leveraging Brady’s immense success as a player into building a properly functioning football organization.”

Chip Kelly was hired to fix the offense, but he got fired after 11 games. Now, Greg Olson inherits the offense, trying to spark some late-season hope. But Chip Kelly’s decision isn’t the only one Brady’s being called out for. Brady had been all-in trying to get veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford away from the Los Angeles Rams to join the Raiders. When that didn’t work, many thought of bringing in Sam Darnold, but Brady reportedly wasn’t into it.

While Sam Darnold went to the Seattle Seahawks, Geno Smith was traded in to run Kelly’s system, with a strong vote of confidence from Tom Brady. But now, Darnold’s cooking in Seattle 8-3, while Smith leads the league in interceptions and the Raiders’ offense looks like it’s stuck in quicksand. It’s easy to see why the ‘Brady Effect’ is suddenly in question. The owner’s influence isn’t a badge if the scoreboard keeps saying ‘Not good enough.’

The locker room mood is flat. The offense ranks near the bottom of the league. Kelly’s six-million contract is now dead money. Every pick, every call keeps getting scrutinized now. Brady had claimed he’s just a “sounding board,” but head coach Pete Carroll had confirmed that Brady was “integral” to the hiring process. He even played a major role in bringing Carroll to Las Vegas.

Mike Florio put it bluntly, saying, “This year, he’s at least partially responsible for the 2-9 disaster.”

Tom Brady’s now learning that NFL ownership isn’t just luxury boxes and photo ops. The losses hurt more, all airing out on the public stage. Plus, he’s also juggling his NFL broadcasting role with it, but he has been vocal about how that isn’t a point of conflict for him. 

“I feel I have a moral and ethical duty to the sport; which is why the point where my roles in it intersect is not actually a point of conflict, despite what the paranoid and distrustful might believe,” he had said earlier.

But here’s the thing: he’s not alone in the heat. Carroll is staging down some history that no coach ever wants for their legacy.

Pete Carroll: one loss from his worst

Pete Carroll, at 74, took the Raiders gig for one more run at glory. But so far, he’s had to put three of his coaching staff on the chopping block. Special teams coordinator Tom McMahon was the first to go, then came Chip Kelly’s firing, and shortly afterwards, the Raiders also parted ways with senior offensive assistant Bob Bicknell. Now Carroll seems to be the last man standing.

What hurts the most is that Pete Carroll is a single defeat away from the worst season on his crowded resume. His lowest season record for him (still) is 6-10. The air gets thicker at practice after each loss, whispers surround the sideline, and everyone’s tense. But Carroll hasn’t dodged the story. He has called the situation “uncharted waters.”

“This is just uncharted waters, basically, but we worked for a long time trying to come together and communicating so it fits the style of play that we want to play with.”

The biggest question for Carroll is now whether he will retire. One more loss, and the Raiders’ history might remember Carroll for the wrong reasons.

Nobody wanted this. Not Tom Brady, not Pete Carroll, not the Raiders diehards. Yet, every move gets second-guessed now. Ownership doesn’t get moral victories; it just gets judged by the standings. That’s what makes this unraveling Las Vegas story so wild. Week 13 against the Los Angeles Chargers feels like a referendum for everyone with a keycard to the building. The question is, can they turn this season around?