Raiders are at a crossroads heading into Week 9 vs Bengals

Going into the 2024 NFL season, many of the NFL experts across the country had little expectations for the Las Vegas Raiders. With Antonio Pierce entering his first full season as head coach, and question marks on both sides of the ball, the Silver and Black were expected to spend another season on the outside looking in at the playoffs.

After a loss in Week 1, the Raiders gave fans a reason to hope, beating the Baltimore Ravens on the road in a monster NFL upset. However, since then, Las Vegas has struggled mightily on offense and currently is one of the worst teams in the league in terms of running the football.

There has also been instability at quarterback, as Gardner Minshew II was benched in favor of Aidan O'Connell, who broke his hand in his first start for the Raiders this season. Minshew is now back under center for Las Vegas, and he has looked downright bad running an offense with Luke Getsy calling the plays.

So where do the Raiders go from here? They can continue to try and win football games, which will be the message from Pierce, but does that do the franchise any good moving forward?

Should the Raiders embrace the tank?

Las Vegas currently holds the No. 7 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, a draft slot that may not land them the kind of franchise quarterback they need to turn this franchise around. The 2025 class is not as strong as in recent years, and we could see a run of signal-callers come off the board before Las Vegas has a chance to select one.

There is also the fact that the team is loaded with salary cap space heading into next offseason, a position they have not been in for quite some time.

Continuing to lose may cost some people their jobs, including Pierce and Getsy, but does it set the team up for future success? Tom Brady is now a part-owner of the team, and he is not going to sit back and let his investment continue to fall outside of the playoffs year after year.

Quarterback play is paramount in today's NFL, and the Raiders just do not have the right guys at the position group right now. There are other positions of need going into the offseason, but this is the key to turning things around in the desert.

Losing out and getting a top-five pick may be the play for general manager Tom Telesco and the front office, but there are many players on this team who play with pride every week. It would be impossible to ask Pierce to coach to lose, or even guys like Maxx Crosby and Brock Bowers to not give 100 percent every time they step on the field.

The worst-case scenario for the Raiders would be picking outside of the top-10 next April, and continuing in quarterback purgatory. However, the NFL is too tough a league to let your foot off the gas, so unless ordered to do so, expect Las Vegas to try and stack as many wins as possible moving forward.