The Las Vegas Raiders were far from the best team in the NFL last season but they finally have a competent head coach-general manager tandem and plenty of talent on the roster.
Not only this, but the team has a projected $95 million in cap space and 10 draft picks at their disposal this offseason, including the No. 6 overall pick.
ESPN recently released their early NFL power rankings for the 2025 season and it's safe to say that they are not convinced the Raiders can turn things around quickly. Of the 32 teams in the league, ESPN ranked them 28th, meaning they'll be slightly worse than a season ago.
"The Raiders have a new coach in Pete Carroll and a new general manager in John Spytek, which means they have had a combined 12 coaches and GMs (counting interims) since announcing their move from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2017," wrote Paul Gutierrez. "Owner Mark Davis said his efforts to "build" hit a roadblock following the resignation of Jon Gruden in 2021. 'I think we've got the infrastructure now in this organization to move into the future,' David said."
While Gutierrez raises a good point about the organization's instability over the recent years, that has no bearing on this year's team. If the team can figure out who their franchise quarterback is this offseason, as Carroll and Spytek have done before, then this team could compete sooner rather than later.
Las Vegas has a formidable starting offensive line and a top-flight tight end in Brock Bowers, as well as a good wide receiver in Jakobi Meyers. A good quarterback, combined with an upgrade at running back and this offense could be in the middle of the pack under first-year coordinator Chip Kelly.
The defense's biggest issue last season was staying healthy and ideally, that gets fixed this year. With Patrick Graham remaining on the staff, it gives them a better chance to resign some of their key free agents on that side of the ball.
Simple improvements will not solve the entire puzzle, but surely they will help the Raiders crawl out of the gutter. It may be a while until they are competing for championships, but it should not be long until they're out of the No. 1 pick conversation.