Scott Gulbransen
Let’s get one thing straight before we go any further: Tom Brady matters to the Las Vegas Raiders.
His presence in the building is real, his involvement in football decisions is documented and his fingerprints are on just about everything this organization has done since he became a minority owner in October 2024. John Spytek has said it plainly: Brady is involved in everything football-wise and that includes the most important pick in franchise history coming later this month.
But here’s the question nobody in Raider Nation is asking loudly enough: when the dust settles on the Mendoza era, the Kubiak era, and whatever comes after that, who actually owns this team?
Because that answer is quietly being written right now, and it has almost nothing to do with Tom Brady.
Brady’s Role Is Real — But It Has Limits
I’ll give credit where it’s due. Brady has been more than a celebrity endorsement for the Raiders. Kubiak has said he’s already been calling Brady constantly since getting the job, leaning on him as a resource with a different offensive background. Spytek has openly credited Brady in the quarterback evaluation process, which is pretty significant when you’re about to spend the No. 1 overall pick on a franchise signal-caller. When Adam Schefter appeared on the Pat McAfee Show and was asked how involved Brady has been in all these offseason moves, the answer was pointed — Brady didn’t learn about the Kirk Cousins signing from a tweet. He was in on it.
But Brady himself has been clear-eyed about where his role actually ends. He’s a limited partner. Mark Davis is the boss. There’s no job description that comes with a minority stake and Brady has acknowledged that openly. He wants to win. He wants to bring a winning culture to Las Vegas. He wants to be part of something that lasts. Those are real things and I believe he means all of them.
What he is not, and cannot be in any practical sense, is the long-term answer to the Raiders’ ownership question. That answer is already sitting in the wings, and his name is Egon Durban.
The Durban Angle Is the Story Nobody’s Fully Connecting
Last week at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, owners voted to approve a Raiders succession plan that formalizes something that’s been building quietly for over a year. The NFL approved the sale of 3.5% of the team to Egon Durban at an $11.1 billion valuation, with another 3.5% expected to follow — and the deal gives Durban the right of first refusal on Davis’ controlling stake if and when Davis decides to sell.
Mark Davis, who has no children, has said he has no intention of selling his majority stake. I take him at his word. But Davis is 70 years old, and his mother, Carol, passed away last October. The NFL requires succession plans. And the one that was just approved doesn’t leave much to the imagination about how this eventually plays out.
Durban structured the deal with a right of first refusal that locks out every other bidder. If Davis or his heirs ever sell, Durban gets first call. One man. One phone call. One outcome is already written into the contract.
That’s not a sideshow. That’s the biggest organizational story surrounding this franchise that isn’t Fernando Mendoza.
So Where Does Brady Fit in All of This?
Brady holds 5% of the team. Durban already held 7.5% before this latest deal and that figure is now climbing toward a position that could eventually mean controlling ownership. These two men were photographed together on the sideline at the College Football Playoff National Championship in January. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated summed it up in four words after the succession plan news broke: “Egon Durban is Brady’s guy.”
That framing is worth sitting with. If Durban is eventually the one who owns this team outright, and Brady is his guy, then Brady’s long-term influence with the Raiders isn’t just as a football consultant, and it could be as the most connected minority voice to whoever the next principal owner is.
That’s a different kind of power than what gets discussed in offseason press conferences. It’s quieter, slower-moving, and frankly more consequential.
What This Means for the Raiders Rebuild
In the short term, none of this changes what happens on April 23 in Pittsburgh, or what Klint Kubiak builds in Henderson starting this week. The football decisions are being made by Spytek, informed by Brady, and approved by Davis. The succession question is background noise for now.
But Raider Nation should understand what’s actually being constructed here, because it goes beyond the roster. Mark Davis built something real by relocating this franchise to Las Vegas — an $11.1 billion franchise valuation doesn’t happen without vision and execution at the ownership level. The question of who inherits that and what they do with it is one of the most important long-term storylines in the NFL right now.
Brady gets the headlines. Durban holds the option.
In Las Vegas, that distinction matters.
