Jan 27, 2025; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek (left) and coach Pete Carroll at press conference at Intermountain Health Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

How Former OL Richie Incognito Buried Raiders Leadership

Originally posted on Las Vegas Raiders on SI
By Ezekiel Trezevant | Last updated Nov 24, 2025 11:00 AM ET

The Las Vegas Raiders season continues to circle the drain after being thoroughly outplayed by a team that had the same record as them entering the day.

Choice Words

After an offseason full of change, few things have gone the Raiders' way this season. Las Vegas' offense was figured out early by opposing defenses, while sustaining critical injuries to its best players. All of which were too much for former Raiders Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly.

Former Raiders offensive lineman Richie Incognito recently let his feelings on the state of the Raiders be known on "The Arena" Podcast.

“Tom [Brady] did have a close connection with [Shedeur], and he is calling the shots. The Raiders are idiots, and they went with Geno Smith, so they have their starter,” Incognito said.

“This is a great matchup [for Shedeur]. Stick it to Tom. Stick it to the Raiders. The Raiders team is just in shambles,” Incognito said. ”[Tom] has major input there. Mr. Davis is one, he’s 1A. He’s calling a lot of shots there. The close personal relationship [Tom] has with Shedeur, they could have saved him. He went in the fifth round. They obviously need some help at quarterback because our backup is Aidan O’Connell.

”Brady is calling the shots. I know so. Brady is running the show, and I know that Mr. Davis is running a lot of stuff by him; he has a close personal relationship with [John] Spytek that goes back to Michigan, they won a Super Bowl together in Tampa. I do think there is some credence to Tom passing on [Shedeur] several times. They could have spent a fourth. They could have spent a fifth.”

Following Sunday's loss to the Browns, Raiders Head Coach Pete Carroll analyzed some of Smith's biggest misses. Las Vegas' offense had several opportunitities to make impact plays on chunk plays, only for Smith to overthrow a wide open Tre Tucker multiple times.

Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

The missed connection was a microcosm of the Raiders' day against the Browns and their season altogether. The Raiders can fire as many coaches as they want, it will not fix the roster issues that the Raiders currently have. Las Vegas has a long offseason ahead of them, for more reasons than one.

"Yeah, uncharacteristic misses there. There was like three of them where Tre [Tucker] got behind him, and we had some real shots and opportunities and did have a chance to get the ball out and clean. We need to hook those up. There's no doubt Tre ran as hard as he could, and he got open,” Carroll said.

“He was behind him. He's got to put the ball on him. Those were the big plays that could have saved us on a day when we were struggling on other downs, and that was really unfortunate, because we really did have the right opportunities there for us."

This article first appeared on Las Vegas Raiders on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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