For a significant period last month, it felt like the Las Vegas Raiders had emerged as the heavy favorite to sign Ben Johnson as their next head coach. So much was made of Tom Brady's presence and his ability to sway the young offensive coordinator. However, after the Detroit Lions were eliminated from the playoffs divisional weekend, Johnson signed with the Chicago Bears 48 hours later. That was a glaring indication that his interest in Las Vegas was never serious. His agent, Rick Smith, indicated as much, admitting they used those discussions as contract leverage.
It turns out the story goes a bit deeper. While the media seemed to think Johnson was enamored with the Raiders, the truth is he had some bad blood with them. Why? It stems from his camp telling them he didn't want to interview there. Albert Breer of the MMQB revealed he'd already compiled a short list of teams he'd be willing to coach for. Las Vegas wasn't on it. The Raiders got the message directly from his representatives.
Then, they proceeded to ignore it completely and requested an interview anyway.
“When [Ben] Johnson and his camp planning things out, going back to November and December, they didn’t want to go through a full tour of interviews. The whole idea for them was to assess the openings and then decide which jobs [they] could legitimately see [themselves] taking.
There were a number of jobs they decided they wouldn’t see themselves taking and so they communicated to those teams quietly, ‘Don’t even put in request in, we don’t want to embarrass you, we don’t want to look like jerks, so we’ll respectfully decline [and] you won’t have to do anything officially, but we’re saying no to you and everyone will go on their merry way...
...The Raiders were one of those teams and despite all of that, the Raiders still put a request in. Johnson’s camp wasn’t happy about it. They wind up calling the Raiders and the Raiders basically said we’re going to get you on the phone with Tom Brady. So Tom Brady calls Ben Johnson’s camp… [and] Brady more or less promised to them we’re going to do what it takes to make this a first-class operation…”
Ben Johnson was forced to take the interview.
The request was made public by NFL media. It would've looked bad if he had turned it down, especially if Tom Brady himself was leading the charge. So he had the meeting. It went well by all accounts, but clearly, it did nothing to change his mind. Breer had suggested months ago that Johnson was eyeing the Bears job as far back as late 2023. It probably wasn't a coincidence he chose to stay in Detroit after Chicago opted to retain Matt Eberflus for another season. Once he was fired, the window was open.
Things came together quickly after that. Ben Johnson connected well with GM Ryan Poles during their initial meeting. He was satisfied with the things ownership assured him about the team hierarchy. Once the questions were answered, hammering out a contract was the only thing left. Chicago gave him $13 million per year, the highest of any first-time head coach in history. Las Vegas ended up going with Pete Carrol. Raiders fans think they got the better end of the deal. Time will tell.
