Tom Brady, speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, said he expects the Raiders to deliver a massive improvement in 2026 after a first full season as a minority owner that produced poor results and the first overall draft pick. Brady insisted underperformanc
In Tom Brady’s world, rebuilding doesn’t start with a motivational poster. It starts with results that don’t look like they’re stuck on the same problem for months.
That’s the tone he brought to the Stick to Football podcast when he was asked what comes next for the Raiders after a brutal first full season as a minority owner. The team “stunk. ” in Brady’s words. and the consequences were immediate enough to be written into the draft order: the Raiders earned the first overall pick.
So what does Brady expect in 2026?
“‘I would expect a lot of improvement from where it’s been,’” Brady said. He didn’t dress it up as a one-unit fix or a quick turnaround. “Last year, we just underperformed in every area. And it’s everybody’s fault. That’s the reality. There’s nobody who did a good job. There’s not one player in the organization. there’s not anybody involved that did the job to the level that it needs to be done at. And everybody needs to improve.”.
Brady framed the expectation as a responsibility that runs from ownership down to the roster. “And it starts with me,” he said, “and it filters down to the rest of the players on the field, and they’ve got to go out there, and ultimately they’ve got to perform at a high level.”
He didn’t offer a precise win total when pressed. Instead, he set the standard the way championships are built in the day-to-day: progress you can feel.
“A massive improvement,” Brady said. “And I would expect daily improvement, and I’d expect hourly improvement. I really would. Every day that goes by. when you’re on a good team. every day and every week goes by. you should be better. Like. a good team should be better at the end of the season than the beginning of the season. or you’re not a good team.”.
Brady tied his logic to how preparation actually works. “If you have more time together and more practice and you’re getting worse, something’s wrong,” he said. “If you have more time, more practice, you should be getting better.”
Then he pointed to the mess that interrupts that ideal—an offseason full of change. “Now the problem’s the offseason, you change players, you change coaches, and now you’ve got to rebuild to where you were,” Brady said.
He also looked back at what he recognized from his playing days: not everything peaks on schedule. “Like, a lot of the teams I played on, the best game we played all season was the last game of the year. That says to me a lot about what the team’s all about.”
But there’s a practical tension baked into his message. Brady isn’t in position to “grab an oar and row the boat” the way a full-time team leader might. because his job has him elsewhere—calling games for Fox. If the Raiders are going to show the “daily” and “hourly” improvement Brady expects. someone else will have to be physically in the building every day making sure the standard isn’t just spoken. but practiced.
Tom Brady Raiders 2026 minority owner NFL offseason Stick to Football podcast first overall pick coaching changes