The Las Vegas Raiders were an absolutely miserable football team during the 2025 NFL season. An exciting offseason thus far has partially clouded just how bad the Silver and Black were last year, but those problems aren't just going away with a new coach and quarterback or immense resources.
John Spytek needs to find, or Klint Kubiak needs to develop, over a dozen more capable starters if they want the Raiders to even be a competitive team in 2026. Is that possible? Certainly. But is it likely in the span of just a couple of months? Probably not, and that's okay.
This Las Vegas team will be built for the long haul, and Spytek isn't getting caught up in the hype of a one-year turnaround. He even acknowledged that several teams in recent memory have righted the ship rather quickly, and while that's possible, that clearly isn't his goal.
John Spytek is building the Raiders for sustained success, not an instant turnaround
During his media availability at the 2026 NFL combine, Spytek was asked about Maxx Crosby reportedly wanting to play for a contender and if he felt that the Raiders could contend in 2026. Spytek didn't necessarily take the bait, instead opting to lay out the path to immediate success.
"We're going to build this team the right way. And this league is littered with examples of teams that went from a top-five pick to the NFC Championship, the Super Bowl. We've seen it the last couple years," Spytek said. "The Patriots won four games last year, and they were in the big game. The year before, the Commanders picked second and were in the NFC Championship game. So, we're going to build it the right way, and we'll see what comes."
Local media members caught up with Spytek during a scrum later on in the day, and one reporter asked Spytek about how quickly he feels that Las Vegas can turn things around, given the resources that they have. Spytek, again, had the perfect answer.
"I'm not into quickly turning around. I'm into turning around the right way," Spytek explained. "You can see this league, every year, there's teams that that rise fast and fall fast. And we're trying to rise and stay there."
Spytek's approach to the Silver and Black turning things around is truly the best of both worlds. On the one hand, he sees the route to immediate success and isn't ruling it out. But he also knows that teams fall just as fast, and that being successful for one season isn't the goal. Sustained success is.
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The Commanders, notably, regressed a ton in Year 2 of their rebuild after immediately turning things around. Some of that was due to Jayden Daniels being hurt, but Washington also fired both of its coordinators and is in a bit of disarray as a franchise They might have gone all-in a bit too soon.
"I don't know if I'm trying to take or do anything from those guys. That was just an example of: They were able to flip it pretty quickly," Spytek said, when asked about learning from the Patriots and Commanders. "And I'm not standing here predicting or anything like that. I just think that we've got a good system. We got to do the right things consistently, stack good decisions on top of each other, and we've got a great opportunity this year. ... I'm not really big into comparisons."
That, again, is a good way to look at things. No two situations in the NFL are the same. The Commanders and Patriots both had retread head coaches when they righted the ship, whereas the Raiders are heading into things with a rookie leader.
Neither the Patriots nor the Commanders had as many holes on their roster as Las Vegas currently does, and New England had a quarterback going into Year 2. The Raiders will, by all accounts, have a rookie signal-caller at the helm. Two first-timers aren't always a recipe for immediate success.
However, that doesn't mean that Spytek isn't gunning for it. He may very well feel confident in the coaching staff developing Fernando Mendoza quickly and in the resources that they have to supplement the new coach and quarterback.
But if the Raiders aren't good right away, Spytek isn't going to sweat. As he continues to say, he wants to build things the right way, not the quick or easy way. If a surefire way existed to turn things around, every NFL team would do it. But Las Vegas doesn't need to cut any corners in its rebuild.
And it sounds like Spytek won't.