Even though they had a long winning streak going against the Denver Broncos heading into the 2024 season, the Las Vegas Raiders can't help but be jealous of Denver's success in 2025 and the way Sean Payton has rapidly turned around the entire program. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so just like the Broncos with Sean Payton, the Raiders pulled an all-time great NFL head coach out of retirement by hiring Pete Carroll in the 2025 offseason.
They not only followed the Broncos' footsteps with their head coaching hire, but the Raiders also hired former Broncos front office member John Spytek to be their general manager. Spytek, who worked under John Elway, even made a big trade for a Seahawks quarterback this offseason (Geno Smith).
One of Spytek's first moves as GM of the Raiders was to hire Mark Thewes away from the Denver Broncos, where he spent a whopping 16 years, to be his SVP of Football Operations and strategy.
But it is the most recent theft that proves the Raiders are trying desperately to be exactly like the Broncos. A report from Albert Breer indicates that the Raiders hired Broncos college scouting director Brian Stark as their new assistant general manager.
Raiders steal Brian Stark from Denver Broncos front office
Brian Stark worked his way up in the Broncos organization as a regional scout and was the director of college scouting, spending 13 seasons with the franchise before being poached away by the Raiders.
The NFL world is a lot about three degrees of separation, and when a former Bronco gets hired somewhere, they're bound to try and take folks with them. We've seen Sean Payton do the same with many of his ties to the New Orleans Saints.
The Broncos hired Cody Rager last offseason as the VP of Player Personnel, and ganeral manager George Paton is very hands-on despite also being collaborative with the scouts. The Broncos have had a lot of cooks in the kitchen during these last handful of years, and they've obviously done exceptionally well.
It makes sense that a lot of teams would be sniffing around the Broncos front office and coaching staff after the team just won 10 games with $90 million in dead cap, seemingly flipping the idea that they had one of the worst rosters in the NFL on its head.
Stark has been a key part of that behind the scenes and is being recognized for it. He might not have had the same opportunity to move into an assistant GM role with the Broncos, even after former Broncos assistant GM Darren Mougey left this offseason to become the GM of the New York Jets.
There will be some big changes to the Broncos' front office this year, regardless. This is the most they've lost in quite some time, and you can expect teams will continue trying to poach going forward. Even division rivals.