Talk of Raiders hiring Ben Johnson intensifies

Will Ben Johnson leave his job as offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions for one of the various job openings for which he has interviewed? As the Lions prepare to host the Commanders in the divisional round of the playoffs, the future has taken a backseat to the present for Johnson.

That hasn’t kept chatter about his future from presently reverberating on the NFL grapevine.

Starting last Thursday, the talk started to intensify of Johnson to the Raiders. Coincidentally, or not, that was the same day the Raiders fired G.M. Tom Telesco, clearing a path for the “alignment” that Johnson has prioritized with the front office.

Not that Johnson would ask for Telesco or anyone else to be fired. If a team really wants Johnson, however, it needs to hear the clues and act accordingly. If the Raiders, as it seems, want Johnson, they have acted accordingly.

Johnson, we’ve heard, emerged from his Raiders interview with positive feelings about the team and minority owner Tom Brady — who has taken a major role in the ongoing search for a new coach.

Most recently, we’ve caught wind of a rumor that the Raiders have made a “massive” contract offer to Johnson. While it’s premature for offers to officially be made, given that they’ve yet to conduct a face-to-face interview with Johnson, the talk is out there that a big number is unofficially out there.

Whether it’s credible or not remains to be seen. Owner Mark Davis isn’t exactly in the upper echelon of cash-rich NFL owners. With recent buyouts to the likes of Jon Gruden, Josh McDaniels, Dave Ziegler, Antonio Pierce, and Telesco, piggy banks might need to be busted open to blow the entry-level curve on Johnson.

A “massive” deal also would ruffle feathers among the other owners, some of whom are obsessed with staving off a bidding wars for coaches, where there’s no salary cap and no franchise tag and the market could easily go haywire.

But it’s more than money for Johnson. If he works for the Raiders, he has access to Brady. Regardless of the niceties of the rules, there’s also talk that they’ve spent plenty of time talking on the phone.

They’re allowed to converse within the confines of Brady’s job with Fox. Although he can’t attend production meetings, Brady is allowed to talk to coaches and players about the games he’ll be working. And he’ll be working the Lions game this weekend.

Johnson can’t be hired until the Lions’ season has ended. And the season could culminate in Brady calling Johnson’s final game with the Lions, just a day before Brady invites Johnson for a one-way ride on his private plane to Las Vegas.

There’s currently no other destination that fits. Johnson has interviewed with the Raiders, Bears, Jaguars, and Patriots. The alignment he wants doesn’t exist in Jacksonville, and likely isn’t in play with the Bears. Unless the Cowboys (who blew their window to interview Johnson at any time before the Lions’ season ends because they didn’t interview him via Zoom last week) make a late run, it’s the Raiders or the status quo for Johnson.

More and more people in league circles believe it will be the Raiders.