Things did not go anywhere near as originally planned for the 2025 Las Vegas Raiders. Head coach Pete Carroll's visions of being competitive in a tough AFC West went unrealized in a big way, as could've been expected with how the roster looked.
So much went wrong for the Raiders on their way to a 3-14 record, with the oddness of wins in Week 1 and Week 18, that it's impossible to narrow down to any one thing as the primary reason for the struggles. From coaching and front office miscalculations to dismal player performance, the failures were across the board and spared no one this side of Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers.
Through all of the bad, there was one big positive to come out of this season for the Raiders. They were bad enough to get the No. 1 overall pick in April's draft, so they finally have a shot at getting a young franchise quarterback. If Carroll can be thanked for anything after being one-and-done as head coach, it is unequivocally that.
Ineptitude of Raiders' 2025 season can't really be summed up in one stat
Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report has offered up one stat that defines this season for each NFL team. For the Silver and Back, he ultimately couldn't stop at one.
"Las Vegas Raiders: 17"
"Interceptions thrown by Las Vegas quarterback Geno Smith, the only player in the league to record more than 15 picks in 2025. Throw in that the Raiders were sacked on a league-high 11.1 percent of their dropbacks, and it's no surprise this was the NFL's worst team."
According to Pro Football Focus, Smith tied for the third-most turnover-worthy plays in the league (23). If he hadn't missed two games, he may have threatened Baker Mayfield for the league-high (28), and he almost surely would've passed Tua Tagovailoa's AFC-high 25 turnover-worthy plays.
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As Gagnon also noted, though, Smith was under duress a lot behind an offensive line that became pretty injury-depleted. He took a tied for league-most 55 sacks, and if not for those two missed games he would have surely taken more than 60 sacks.
When it comes to a stat (or stats) that defined the Raiders' 2025 season, Smith's number of interceptions and the rate at which they allowed sacks are as good as anything else. But Raider Nation, and everyone else, knows those were simply manifestations of some greater maladies that plagued the team all season long.