Raiders' biggest 'what-if' could have yielded major offseason move

For the last few years, the Las Vegas Raiders have been in a state of disarray at the two most prominent spots in a football operation: head coach and quarterback. There was a strong effort to fix that this offseason, with Pete Carroll ultimately coming on as head coach and a quick move to reunite him with quarterback Geno Smith in early March.

The searches that landed on Carroll and Smith did not start with them, however. This doesn't mean they were bad or wrong choices, but it was clear the Raiders strongly pursued other options at both head coach and quarterback before landing on this tandem.

It was well known that the Raiders coveted Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as a head coaching candidate, and when Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was allowed to speak to other teams, Las Vegas was a very strong suitor as well.

Raiders could have ended up with Ben Johnson and Matthew Stafford

Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports recently outlined five wild "what-if" scenarios from the NFL offseason. There was a clear domino effect element to the first three, starting with the Chicago Bears hiring Mike McCarthy as their head coach and not Johnson.

"If Mike McCarthy had landed with the Bears, prompting Ben Johnson to join the Raiders, it's very possible, if not probable, that Las Vegas would've escalated its pursuit of a quarterback upgrade. What if, instead of dealing a mid-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for old Carroll understudy Geno Smith, they pushed all their chips on the biggest name of the 2025 market?" Benjamin asked. "Stafford was permitted to speak with other teams about a potential contract before securing a revised deal with the Los Angeles Rams, and Brady's Raiders were reportedly among the most interested suitors. Now imagine if Johnson was part of the pitch; he was on staff with the Lions, alongside Stafford, from 2019-2020. In this scenario, it's not so crazy to envision Stafford rocking silver and black to close his storied gunslinging career."

It never seemed very likely that Stafford was going to leave the Rams, as eventual reports indicated that he left $20 million on the table over the next two years in his revised contract with them.

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But, in a different world, Johnson could have been the Raiders' head coach and been able to fully sell Stafford on Las Vegas as the best place to end his career.

With Tom Brady in tow, it's not a stretch to think the Raiders had some idea to try to reunite Johnson and Stafford as their new head coach and quarterback duo. But Carroll and Smith have an unrivaled coach and quarterback relationship, and the Raiders should be just fine with them in place as the most credible options they've had at those positions in quite some time.

Sometimes, things just work out the way they're supposed to.