The Las Vegas Raiders are currently going through the motions when it comes to hiring the franchise's next head coach-general manager pairing and one name that's really picked up a lot momentum is Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant general manager John Spytek.
Spytek is not only one of the more-heralded NFL scouts/assistant GMs, but he also has a strong relationship with Tom Brady that goes all the way back to their playing days at Michigan. Then there's the obvious fact they won a Super Bowl together in Tampa Bay, so Spytek makes a ton of sense at GM.
But the Raiders may not get their best shot at hiring Spytek because they took too long to fire former GM Tom Telesco. That's because Spytek is already about to conduct his second interview with the Titans before he's even had a single interview with the Raiders.
The Titans will actually conclude their second round of interviews with six candidates after Thursday and Spytek is one of the final interviews. The Titans will move quickly when it comes to their final decision and the thought is they'll make a decision within a few days from Thursday and if Spytek is their guy, well, the Raiders are going to be up the creek, if you know what I mean.
And it makes sense: If the Titans were to offer Spytek the GM job, why in the world would he turn it down just to wait until another interview with the Raiders? There are currently five other candidates for the Titans' job - if Spytek were to turn down the offer, the Titans would obviously offer one of the other candidates. Then, there's a chance things don't work with the Raiders to where they don't offer him the job and boom, Spytek is right back where he started as assistant general manager in Tampa Bay.
The Titans were able to get a jump-start on the Raiders because they fired Ran Carthon two days before Las Vegas fired Telesco. That doesn't seem like a long time, but it is in this process. Case in point: Tennessee conducted its first interview with Spytek on January 10 - one day after Telesco was fired.
There's certainly a world where the Raiders fire Telesco (which many saw coming, anyway) at the same time as Antonio Pierce and are able to possibly get a jump-start on the Titans, or at least be on the same playing field when it comes to the interview opportunities.
That's not the case, however, and it could ultimately cost them a shot at landing the guy many believe can help get things back on track.
