One of the reasons it was surprising to see the Las Vegas Raiders pass on Shedeur Sanders multiple times in the 2025 NFL draft was because of his relationship with minority owner Tom Brady.
Brady was expected to have a big voice in what the Raiders do, something that was reported and even said by owner Mark Davis. So, that led Skip Bayless to believe it was Brady who told the Raiders not to draft Sanders.
"It is now pretty clear Tom Brady, who mentored Shedeur, told the Raiders NOT to take Shedeur. Duly noted," Bayless wrote on X during the draft.
"How could Tom Brady's team pass on Shedeur Sanders again and again and again???" Bayless asked in another tweet. "Brady reportedly coached Shedeur. Brady reportedly was involved in Raiders draft decision-making."
Brady has since fired back at Bayless while on the "Impaulsive" podcast. Brady did not name Bayless specifically, but it was very clear that's who he was talking about.
"I wasn’t a part of any evaluation process," he said of Sanders. "The problem with media is everyone can just say whatever the [expletive] they want. And it’s kind of unfortunate because there actually used to be a lot of integrity in media and there’s way less now because everyone needs crazy voices to get heard."
Bayless did not take kindly to those words and fired back at the future Hall of Fame quarterback, calling him a liar.
“Tom Brady has called me out,” Bayless said in a video. “I guess he’s called me a liar. So I’m about to call BS on Tom Brady because, Tom, you know and I know, everything I said about you and Shedeur Sanders is obviously exactly right.”
“It wasn’t like Brady actually called me out because he didn’t call me out by name,” he added. “He just said that was wrong. And by translation, of course, I’m wrong. But Tom did it with a big broad brush. He condemned the media. Took the cowardly way out. Just take me on. I don’t care. I can take it, because I’m right…I’ve had a lot of integrity. I’d like to say that I work really hard at telling the truth and backing it up.”
There is simply no way to know for sure if Brady told the Raiders to avoid drafting Sanders as Bayles claims, but it's hard to believe Brady wasn't part of the team's evaluation process at all, especially when it comes to Sanders.
On top of Davis' aforementioned comments, even head coach Pete Carroll admitted the Raiders would "lean" on Brady "as much as we possibly can."
General manager John Spytek also said that "we'd have to be fools not to involve" Brady.
After the draft, Spytek revealed Brady's thoughts on sixth-round pick and signal-caller Cam Miller, so it's clear Brady was doing some evaluating.
"Brady liked the way (Miller) threw it, his technique, throwing from the ground up and his motion," Spytek said to Dan Pompei of The Athletic. "And he thought he had the potential to improve."
It'll be interesting to see if Brady responds to Bayless again, but we'd imagine he's said his piece and will move on instead of getting into a back-and-forth.
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