Tom Brady didn’t sugarcoat a thing when he talked about the Raiders’ 2025 season, and now his words have turned into a bigger conversation about what his role with the franchise actually looks like.
Las Vegas is aiming for a serious rebound in 2026 after a rough run that left the team with a 7-27 record over the last two seasons. The organization made a strong push to reset the tone this offseason, starting with the hire of Klint Kubiak as head coach and the selection of quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Brady, who is a minority owner, made it clear he expects the Raiders to take a major step forward.
On the Stick to Football Podcast, he said, "I would expect a lot of improvement from where it's been," Brady said. “Last year, we just underperformed in every area.
And it’s everybody’s fault. That’s the reality.
There’s nobody who did a good job. There’s not one player in the organization, there’s not anybody involved that did the job to the level that it needs to be done at."
He doubled down on that message a moment later.
“A massive improvement,” Brady added on the improvement he expects to see. “And I would expect daily improvement, and I’d expect hourly improvement.
I really would. Every day that goes by, when you’re on a good team, every day and every week goes by, you should be better."
That kind of blunt assessment is exactly what makes Brady, well, Brady. He’s demanding excellence from a team he’s invested in, and he made no effort to soften the blow. But the comments also create a tricky dynamic, especially because his involvement with the Raiders comes alongside his job as Fox Sports’ lead NFL game analyst.
That split role is what’s drawing attention now. Brady spends Sundays in the broadcast booth, not in the building with the Raiders, and he only covers one primary game each week. So when he talks about needing a "massive improvement," the obvious question becomes how much hands-on leadership he can really provide during the season.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio zeroed in on that tension and questioned how Brady can manage both responsibilities.
"He [Brady] took a blowtorch to everyone involved in the 2025 Raiders," Florio said. "He said nobody, no players played at the level they needed to.
Now, Maxx Crosby and Brock Bowers, the two truly great players on the roster, who played most of the year through injury. They may not be thrilled about that comment."
"Brady also said moving forward, it starts with him. I didn't know he was, like, the controlling owner now.
But, maybe Mark Davis doesn't count. But if it does start with Tom Brady, it's kind of hard for Tom Brady to do much during football season, because he can't be there on game days.
He's working for Fox."
"This highlights the fact that it is impossible for him to do both of his jobs to the best of his ability. How can he properly serve as a minority owner and a leadership figure with the Raiders if he can't be there?" Florio later added.
Brady’s comments have now put him in the middle of a very real dilemma. He wants accountability.
He wants change. He wants the Raiders to look nothing like the version that stumbled through 2025.
But with Sundays tied up in the booth, the question is how visible his leadership can really be once the season starts.
For now, the message from Brady is unmistakable: the Raiders need to be better, and fast. Las Vegas believes it has the pieces in place to make that happen in 2026.
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For a Raiders team that leans on Crosby as the tone-setter up front, the timing matters almost as much as the news itself. He has been working through strength and conditioning gains and sounds confident he can be ready for a full return to play once camp arrives, which is exactly the kind of update the organization and its fans wanted to hear after a season of uncertainty. The next step is simply getting to that clearing point and seeing how seamless the transition back to football actually is. [Read more 🡒]