Raiders' GM John Spytek Talks Working with Tom Brady

Ever since joining the Las Vegas Raiders as a minority owner, Tom Brady has helped turn the team around this offseason.

Working with Mark Davis, the Raiders have made aggressive moves towards becoming a competitive team.

All three other AFC West teams made the playoffs last season, and that likely did not sit well with everyone involved with the Raiders organization.

The Raiders brought in John Spytek as their new general manager, someone with whom Brady had familiarity from their time together with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Spytek said he and Brady spent every Tuesday together scouting opponents. He spoke about his relationship with Brady on the latest episode of John Middlekauf’s podcast, ‘3 and Out.’

“I don’t think anything really prepares you for it,” he said about working with Brady. “Everyone says we were teammates at Michigan. Yeah, we were teammates. We hadn’t really spoken 20 or whatever years at that point, so it wasn’t like this was my friend walking in the building.”

Spytek attempted to operate in a manner that Brady was comfortable with.

“He was like, ‘You have to do this, it has to be good.’ That was the format they used in New England. You can put your spin on it however you want. So, I had Rob McCartney, the new assistant GM there, join me, because Rob is a wealth of knowledge and excellent at his job. I thought, probably better to have two people here for Tom rather than just one.”

Spytek recalled the first scouting session he had with Brady.

“He’s like, ‘Alright, babe,’ – he would always call me ‘babe’ – ‘one o’clock, I’ll be up there in the draft room.’ I remember thinking to myself, ‘Alright, let it rip.’ We talked about Marshon Lattimore and Demario Davis and Janoris Jenkins, Marcus Williams, and all the great players that the Saints had, because we played them Week 1. He walked out, and I was like, ‘Well, let’s see if he comes back.’ And he came back the next week.’”

Spytek also mentioned that he was never relaxed during those meetings, as Brady was always passionate and direct.

He also described his current relationship with Brady.

“At the end of the day, I’m not in this job because I’m his friend, or because we had a good time and won a Super Bowl necessarily,” he said. “He gave me an opportunity to come interview for the job because he thought that I could help him and build something that our fanbase deserves and this organization deserves, which is a winner.”

You can watch the full podcast episode with Spytek here.

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