The Las Vegas Raiders have overhauled nearly the entire organization in the past calendar year. While Tom Brady's being approved as a minority owner last October received most of the headlines, his business partner, Tom Wagner, and businessmen Egon Durban and Michael Meldman have also joined the ownership group.
In the group's first offseason as minority owners, they showed a willingness to spend money. They hired John Spytek as general manager, Pete Carroll as head coach and made new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly the highest-paid non-head coach in the league. In fact, Kelly is set to make more than some head coaches in 2025.
The Raiders' new brass also revamped their roster, adding Geno Smith, Ashton Jeanty and Amari Cooper to an offense that was one of the worst in the league in 2024. They also opted not to retain any of their Week 1 starters at linebacker or in the secondary, instead choosing to rebuild both rooms from the ground up.
Nick Wright predicts Raiders to finish 2nd in AFC West
While it is unclear if the moves will pay immediate dividends, it is clear that the culture and perception are changing in Las Vegas. The strong offseason was enough for a known Raiders hater to predict that the team will finish second in the AFC West and make the postseason in 2025.
Nick Wright, a known Kansas City Chiefs fan and host of First Things First on FOX Sports, believes that the Raiders' moves will pay off as he predicted Las Vegas to return to the postseason in 2025 and finish in second place in the division.
"The second-place team, the Las Vegas Raiders, who are in the playoffs," Wright said. "Geno Smith. You go from Aidan O'Connell to a guy who's consistently an above-average NFL quarterback. I don't need to say top-ten; above average. You go from Antonio Pierce to a future Hall of Fame coach. You add Ashton Jeanty. You have year-two Brock Bowers. I think this is an offense that can cook."
.@getnickwright predicted the AFC West standings and dropped a banner in honor of his pick for #1:
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) August 26, 2025
“Chiefs win 10th straight Division Title.” pic.twitter.com/lmCiFp7U6z
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Wright predicted that the Chiefs would win the AFC West, with the Los Angeles Chargers coming in third and the Denver Broncos finishing last. The division, which had three playoff teams a season ago, figures to be one of the toughest in the entire NFL once again.
Despite playing in a tough division, the Raiders have a clear path to the postseason. They will face six teams that won five or fewer games last season and two others, the Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts, who won seven and eight games, respectively.
Both of these opponents could regress significantly as well due to offseason roster changes, so if Las Vegas takes care of business in games that good teams should win, they should be able to have their best season since a 2021 run to the playoffs.