Thursday was a busy day in the NFL news cycle and some of the happenings around the league could soon be relevant to the Raiders.
The big news on Thursday evening was Liam Coen reversing course on his verbal agreement with the Buccaneers to remain their offensive coordinator. Coen is reportedly working on a deal to be the Jaguars next head coach and there is a little concern that John Spytek, who verbally agreed to take the Raiders GM job, could pull a similar maneuver and join Coen in Jacksonville.
Coen and Spytek have the Tampa Bay connection that presumably wouldn’t trump Spytek’s longstanding relationship with Tom Brady, but you never know when money is involved.
No one has reported that Spytek is reconsidering, but he still hasn’t signed a deal with the Raiders and it isn’t because he can’t find a pen.
We don’t know the reason Spytek hasn’t signed, but there is a reason or he would have signed the contract already. Spytek has always wanted to be an NFL general manager, so he isn’t going to postpone a life-changing contract for 36 hours to finish power washing his deck.
There is definitely a hangup in the process. It might be significant or it might not.
If there is uncertainty around Spytek in Las Vegas, there definitely seems to be even more uncertainty around the team’s head coaching search. Friday will be four days since Ben Johnson took the Bears’ job and despite reports that Pete Carroll is the new front runner in Las Vegas, nothing has happened.
Carroll is looking for an answer from the Raiders and it’s a safe bet his representatives leaked a report on Thursday that the Cowboys have some level of interest in Carroll.
The only other candidate the Raiders have been linked to in recent days is Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, and the longer the process plays out, Spagnuolo’s odds of getting the job might be inching up.
After Friday, don’t look for any major announcements from the Raiders as the league doesn’t prefer major news over the weekend that might take away from the storylines around the conference championships.
