John Spytek came to Las Vegas from Tampa, but the former Tom Brady college teammate also has a past in Denver. Some of his hires reflect that.
The Raiders hired Broncos exec Mark Thewes to be their senior VP of football operations early this offseason, and they have since made a bigger addition from Denver’s staff. Brian Stark will join the Raiders as assistant general manager, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reports.
Spytek and Stark worked together in Denver during the first half of the 2010s, serving under then-GM John Elway. Stark climbed to the Broncos’ director of college scouting post late in Elway’s tenure and stayed on under successor George Paton. The latter also lost his own assistant GM, Darren Mougey, this offseason. Mougey is now the Jets’ GM.
The Broncos interviewed Stark for their GM job in 2021, but Paton kept him around despite that. Stark had been viewed as a rising exec at the time, and this climb could potentially put him on the GM radar moving forward. Stark has not interviewed for a GM job since that Broncos meeting four years ago. He was likely to see a promotion in Denver this offseason, considering the turnover on the Broncos’ staff, Insidetheleague.com’s Neil Stratton adds.
Although it took a while for the Broncos to recover from Peyton Manning‘s retirement, they rebuilt around a new core that helped Bo Nix pilot the 2024 roster to the playoffs. The Broncos also gave up three first-round picks in trades for Russell Wilson and Sean Payton, limiting their draft capital this decade. The team has, however, found impact players in Patrick Surtain, Quinn Meinerz and Nik Bonitto this decade. Jonathon Cooper also recently earned an extension, after rising from seventh-round pick to starter. Marvin Mims, a 2023 second-round pick, has also earned back-to-back first-team All-Pro honors.
It is not known who holds the roster-control hammer in Las Vegas just yet, as a collaborative approach (via The Athletic’s Vic Tafur) took place in the draft last week. This marked a change from recent drafts, per Tafur. Brady, Spytek and Pete Carroll each have significant input. That stands to limit the influence of an assistant GM, but Spytek is bringing aboard one of his former coworkers to help the cause.
In addition to Stark, the Raiders are hiring former Jets staffer Johnathon Stigall as their assistant director of college scouting, Stratton tweets. Stigall had been with the Jets since 2014, moving into the role of national scout last year. With the Jets restructuring under Mougey, he will head to Vegas to help out under Spytek. Stigall has been in the NFL since 1999, having worked previously with the Browns, Eagles, Dolphins and Bears.