Raiders Assistant GM Brian Stark leans on chemistry and collaboration in helping shape the Silver and Black

Aug 19, 2025 at 05:00 PM

Levi Edwards

Digital Team Reporter

As Brian Stark addressed the media for the first time as a part of the Las Vegas Raiders, the word efficiency came up a lot.

Essentially, that's what his duties as the assistant general manager boil down to – helping to make decisions easier for those around him.

He's seen personnel decisions make, and sometimes break, football teams in his previous roles with the Denver Broncos. Before being named assistant general manager of the Raiders, he spent 13 years in the Denver Broncos scouting department, three of those years with Raiders General Manager John Spytek.

"It's a pretty special experience for me to have a chance to have this opportunity to be here and support him in this role, to have this role myself and support him in his role, and to still be able to have some of the same conversations that we had back then," Stark said.

Stark's time in Denver certainly had peaks and valleys. From 2011-15, the team won five consecutive divisional titles with two AFC Championships and a victory in Super Bowl 50. The Broncos also had seven consecutive losing seasons, and multiple head coach and general manager changes in that span.

Nevertheless, he believes his prior experiences are what allow him to be confident in his new role and helped him to become, you guessed it, efficient.

"Spy's [John Spytek] got a big job," Stark said. "He's got a lot going on, and we want to make sure that we have everything organized and have strong opinions on things, so that we can present it to him in a way that can make the process as efficient as possible. I think having gone through kind of those roster transitions in Denver, it exposed me to a couple different philosophies and a couple different styles, so kind of able to create some thoughts on that, and then kind of put that together with everybody's experiences that they've had."

Spytek, Carroll and Co. aren't starting at square one, which has sped up their processes in adding talent to the roster. According to Stark, they've always been aligned on the type of players they want on their roster.

"Smart, tough, natural football players that are competitive," Stark said, "and that they have the stamina to sustain that competitiveness throughout practice, throughout games, throughout the season. I really gravitate to those type of players. I think that they're able to sustain and enhance the culture, especially the culture that we're trying to build here."

With the Raiders' remaining preseason game, tough decisions will ensue. The front office staff will be tasked with cutting down from 91 players to 53 by next Tuesday, August 26.

All options will be exhausted, but more importantly, Stark emphasized this will be a collaborative and open-minded effort from all parties.

"We have meetings where everyone is encouraged to kind of share their views," he said. "We watch the practice film together as a personnel staff. We have conversations. We have a chance to interact with the coaches and kind of hear their feel so that we kind of understand maybe what we're asking certain players, certain positions to do. And then there's just a lot of conversation in both departments, and then Spy and Coach Carroll, they come together.

"We're just trying to create all the information, get all the different perspectives on players, and then kind of narrow the focus and give those guys the right information so that when it's time to make a decision, that they can make the decision that's best for us."

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Las Vegas Raiders punter AJ Cole (6) on the field for practice at 2025 Training Camp at Intermountain Health Performance Center.