Maybe Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels didn’t enjoy as cohesive of a partnership as previously thought.
On a podcast called “Harvester Sports,” David Carr added some insight into the relationship between McDaniels and his younger brother, Derek Carr. While David Carr said his brother praised McDaniel’s football acumen, he insinuated the Raiders’ coach wanted control of the offense, which he wasn’t able to obtain in New England.
“I would say what happened is, in New England, Tom Brady ran the show,” said Carr. “He was able to bully Josh. He would just say, ‘This is what we’re gonna do.’ And if Josh said ‘no,’ he would go to Bill’s office, and if he said ‘no,’ he would go to Robert Kraft: ‘Trade Jimmy Garoppolo. I don’t need him in here causing a problem.’ Jimmy Garoppolo gets traded.”
Though Carr never played for the Patriots, it’s fair to surmise he’s friendly with players who did. His assertion that Brady forced the Patriots to trade Garoppolo backs up Seth Wickersham’s reporting from 2017, shortly after Garoppolo was dealt to the 49ers.
The notion that Brady enjoyed final say over the operation in New England isn’t surprising, either, though it pushes back against the idea that McDaniels was a co-collaborator with him. The Raiders finished 12th in scoring last season.
Carr says McDaniels probably wants a quarterback whom he can control.
“When they were in New England, Tom ran his stuff. Tom is a guy, historically, who gets to the line of scrimmage and picks the play he wants to run: ‘Gimme a set formation. Get me in and out of a good play, bad play. That’s what I’m gonna do.’ That’s what Peyton Manning did, that’s what Tom did,” he said. “I think what Josh wants to do, is Josh feels like — maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong. Time will tell — he feels like he can guess right most of the time from the sideline, which is almost impossible to do, in this day and age. But Derek does say he’s a smart guy. He’s a football genius. He gets it. I think for Josh, he’s gonna get a guy who he can, not control, but tell where to throw the ball. That has some physical tools that can make some plays in the run game, that can push the ball down the field.”
That might explain the Raiders’ reported interest in Mac Jones, who enjoyed some success with McDaniels during his rookie season, and probably didn’t question coaching or play calls.
The Raiders have the No. 7 overall pick in the NFL Draft, which they could use to take a top quarterback such as Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud.
Carr says McDaniels wants to do the thinking, and his quarterback to do the throwing.
“‘I don’t need any cerebral things from you. I just need you to go cook.’ I think that’s where Josh is,” he said.
We’ll see if that leads the Raiders to any success.
