Patriots Or Raiders? More Attractive Job Clear Despite Major Move

The New England Patriots or the Las Vegas Raiders?

Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson, the unquestioned top candidates in this offseason’s hiring cycle, could soon be faced with answering that question — if they ever get around to interviewing the 2021 NFL Coach of the Year.

The Patriots have been viewed as one of the top landing spots for those candidates since electing to part ways with now-former head coach Jerod Mayo on Sunday. New England’s roster might be devoid of talent, but it already figured out the hard part in landing quarterback Drake Maye.

The Raiders, on the other hand, were viewed as one of the more undesirable landing spots, as the best player on their roster is a rookie tight end who still doesn’t have a decent quarterback to get him the ball. Las Vegas made itself a bit more sexy on Thursday, however, parting ways with general manager Tom Telesco just two days after moving on from former head coach Antonio Pierce, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.

Raiders owners Mark Davis and Tom Brady can now offer something that Patriots owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft can’t — a clean slate.

It’s still not enough, though.

Davis doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation for hiring head coaches, as the last four he’s brought in include someone whose firing caused an uproar in the locker room (Jack Del Rio), a retread who ultimately resigned due to some unsavory emails (Jon Gruden), a multi-time failure who was hated by his own locker room (Josh McDaniels), and a one-year wonder (Antonio Pierce).

Do you want to be the next guy on that list? I wouldn’t.

The Raiders are going to match a general manager with a coach, but while that’s certainly a nicety, it isn’t exactly enough to have candidates flocking out to the desert. Las Vegas has unsuccessfully shifted between several regimes over the last two decades, routinely finding some way to set up its coaches for failure.

New England has done something similar over the last couple of seasons, but at least there’s a young quarterback worth working with already in the building.

Maye is the deciding factor in this situation, plain and simple.