Following the chaos of Black Monday, Tom Brady and Matt Ryan have emerged as two of the NFL’s most powerful figures, tasked with reshaping the Raiders and Falcons off the field.
For the 18 NFL teams that miss the playoffs, the end of the final regular season weeks generally marks a time of change and transition. Coaches and executives are either let go or retained with some form of warning signaling they could be next to get the axe if things don’t improve in the year to come. The day after the regular season ends is known as Black Monday because of the firings that often occur.
The Atlanta Falcons decided they couldn’t wait until Monday, firing general manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris following Sunday’s win over New Orleans. On Monday morning, the Las Vegas Raiders fired head coach Pete Carroll after one season, a disastrous 3-14 campaign that landed the team the top overall pick in April’s draft.
While there were other coaching changes in Arizona and Cleveland, I’m singling out the Falcons and Raiders for how they plan to run their football operations moving forward, led by a pair of future Hall of Fame quarterbacks who currently work as TV analysts and have no prior formal managerial experience.
Tom Brady purchased a 5% stake in the Raiders in October 2024, and his influence in football operations decision-making has only grown over the last 15 months. Much was made of his conflicts of interest as the lead TV analyst for Fox while holding this role in Las Vegas, including his inability to attend other teams’ facilities during network production meetings, which are now largely held virtually. During the Raiders’ Week 2 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Brady was famously shown in the coaches’ box, an unusually large hands-on role for a minority stakeholder.
After Carroll’s ouster on Monday, Brady was reportedly working at the team facility alongside Las Vegas General Manager John Spytek, who happens to be Brady’s former teammate from their days at the University of Michigan.
“Moving forward, General Manager John Spytek will lead all football operations in close collaboration with Tom Brady, including the search for the club’s next head coach,” the Raiders said in a statement Monday. “Together, they will guide football decisions.”
Brady will help oversee a massive offseason for the franchise. If Las Vegas keeps the top pick in the draft, it could elect to draft a franchise quarterback in Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner. The Raiders, per Spotrac, are projected to have more than $110 million in cap space to spend on free agency in March, the second-highest amount in the league. Brady could reportedly be eyeing a duo of coaches who were on the New England Patriots during his Super Bowl glory days, with Brian Flores joining as coach and Brian Daboll arriving as offensive coordinator.
Regardless of who the Raiders choose, it’s a pivotal offseason for the franchise with Brady clearly playing an enormous role in shaping the team’s future.
Meanwhile, not long after the Falcons fired Fontenot and Morris, a plan emerged as to who would fill that power vacuum.
Matt Ryan, a current CBS Sports studio analyst who, like Brady, would like to remain in his TV role despite the potential conflicts of interest. Ten years after winning NFL MVP and four years after retiring from a career in which 14 of his 15 seasons were spent starring in Atlanta, Matty Ice will seemingly take on a role he’s never come close to having in his life. He’s reportedly been doing homework on potential coaching candidates for weeks, suggesting he’s preparing himself for the role even with Fontenot still serving as the GM.
Atlanta does have to follow the Rooney Rule for the lead football operations role, which is likely why Ryan hasn’t been hired yet. But if Schefter and others are already openly talking about the job being essentially Ryan’s, it just seems like a thinly-veiled formality at this point that directly undermines the Rooney Rule’s purpose and legitimacy, which is a conversation for another article. The Falcons have already reportedly requested head coaching interviews with Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, despite not officially having a lead executive in charge to make the hire in the first place. Ryan’s voice is reportedly already “active” within the team’s organization.
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Greg Beadles was promoted to Falcons president and CEO, overseeing the team’s business operations, but the team is reportedly utilizing consulting firms ZRG Partners for its head coaching search and Sportsology Group for its general manager search. How that impacts Ryan’s future/current role in overseeing football operations is unclear. What is abundantly clear, though, is that Ryan will have a critical voice in the Falcons’ on-field future following his tenure as the most successful quarterback in franchise history.
Ryan will be inheriting a vastly different situation than Brady is navigating in Las Vegas. While Atlanta’s roster has much more talent, it has far less flexibility and maneuverability to improve this offseason. The Falcons have less than $5 million in projected cap space to work with, including a $57.5 million cap hit for backup quarterback Kirk Cousins, a contract Fontenot signed him to just weeks before drafting starter Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall in the 2024 draft. Fontenot also traded Atlanta’s 2026 first-round pick to the LA Rams in last year’s draft to move up to select pass rusher James Pearce. While Pearce led all rookies with 10.5 sacks, the Rams now have the Falcons’ 13th overall pick in April.
After Hall of Fame careers on the field, Ryan and Brady will now be thrust into a different kind of spotlight. Tasked with evaluating coaches and players, they’ll now help shape the futures of Atlanta and Las Vegas, respectively, despite having no traditional front-office experience. Their playing days appear over — barring a Philip Rivers–style emergency return if their quarterbacks aren’t cutting it out there — but their influence has never been greater. They now stand among the most powerful figures in football, trying to guide their teams from the 18 franchises contemplating Black Monday firings to the 14 teams still dreaming of hosting this season’s Lombardi Trophy.
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