{"id":887,"date":"2025-06-21T00:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/887\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T00:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:57:09","slug":"tom-brady-didnt-want-raiders-to-sign-sam-darnold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/887\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Brady didn’t want Raiders to sign Sam Darnold"},"content":{"rendered":"

A call from the top prevented Sam Darnold from landing in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas minority owner Tom Brady persuaded the Raiders not to sign the quarterback, according to The Athletic\u2019s Michael Silver.<\/p>\n

Brady \u201cwas not in favor of that approach\u201d Silver wrote, citing an anonymous source.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Raiders looked to a different former Jets QB in Geno Smith, who they acquired via trade<\/a>, giving up a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Raiders owner Mark Davis and minority owner Tom Brady Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brady liked the way Smith \u201ccan process and throw the football,\u201d per The Athletic.<\/p>\n

Brady and the organization preferred Smith\u2019s traits so much they gave the 34-year-old a two-year, $85.5 million extension with $66.5 million guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Geno Smith was traded to the Raiders. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The irony in the decision to steer clear of Darnold is that the moves made by Brady and the Raiders still influenced his landing spot.<\/p>\n

On March 13, Sam Darnold signed a three-year contract worth $100.5 million<\/a> with the Seahawks \u2014 Smith\u2019s former team \u2014 marking the fifth franchise stop in his NFL career.<\/p>\n

The deal represented a long journey to a massive payday for Darnold.<\/p>\n

Sam Darnold signed with the Seahawks. AP<\/p>\n

The start of his NFL career was less than ideal: the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft, the USC product struggled to gain a foothold with Gang Green, throwing 45 touchdowns and 39 interceptions over three seasons.<\/p>\n

He was traded to the Panthers, where he started parts of two seasons before being signed by San Francisco as insurance behind starter Brock Purdy, seeing limited game time that season.<\/p>\n

He then served as the backup for rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy with the Vikings in 2024, having an unlikely breakout season after McCarthy suffered a season-ending meniscus tear in his first preseason game.<\/p>\n

Darnold went on to a career-best season with 35 touchdowns and a passer rating of 102.5 \u2014 and a massive deal in Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A call from the top prevented Sam Darnold from landing in Las Vegas. Las Vegas minority owner Tom…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1261,535,1232,1262,62,1263,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-geno-smith","9":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sam-darnold","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tom-brady","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114718640956774795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}