Perhaps Las Vegas Raiders fans, myself included, lost sight of the big picture amid the team's 3-0 start to the 2026 NFL season. This was never going to be a one-year fix, and this wasn't supposed to be the start of a contending window. The team's recent four-game losing streak is a reminder of this.
Yet somehow Raider Nation tasted a bit of success and forgot that this is the first year of building the team in John Spytek and Klint Kubiak's shared vision. Spytek has said that this is a rebuild, so the expectation should not even have been that the Raiders would be 3-4 at this point. And it wasn't.
But somewhere between the offseason and now, the fanbase got uncalibrated. That mistake has led to folks unjustly writing off Spytek and Kubiak before they can even finish laying the foundation for this franchise. I'd strongly advise against that, as they have more work to do and are well on their way.
Raiders' 3-4 start is still a step ahead of where most thought they'd be
Let us remember that this Raiders team won three games all of last season, and they accomplished that in the first three weeks of the 2026 campaign. Not to mention, they've competed with the AFC's top two teams, and they have really only been lifeless in one game. Last year, that was a weekly thing.
While that may sound like a low bar to clear, you have to crawl before you can walk. And Las Vegas isn't running or flying yet, but it is taking steps in the right direction. Say what you want about who the Raiders have beaten, but at least they actually beat the teams that they were supposed to beat.
Sure, this losing streak is brutal. But before the season, a lot of fans and analysts did not think that the Silver and Black would get their first or second win until Week 8. This Sunday, they'll have a chance to be at .500 just one week before the trade deadline. They are still firmly in the hunt.
Is it looking like a Super Bowl run is in the cards? No. Heck, the playoffs don't feel like a viable option right now, at least not until the Raiders start ending up on the right side of the scoreboard against good teams. But mediocrity is something fans and the organization have craved for years.
This Las Vegas team is nothing if not that.
And remember just how far they had to come this offseason to even get to this point. Think about all the cards they still have to play and all the resources they have going forward. Think about all of the young players getting experience and how many key fixtures will be around for the next 2-3 years.
Kubiak and Spytek are two of those key fixtures, and they will be the ones entrusted with utilizing those resources. Based on their track record, I'd say that the Raiders are in good hands for the years ahead, regardless of whether they're behind four contending teams in the process right now.
Has every free agent signing been great? No. Has every draft pick panned out so far? Of course not. But nobody bats 1.000, and the list of consequential players that the organization has added in the last two seasons is already lengthy:
Jeremy Chinn
Eric Stokes
Ashton Jeanty
Darien Porter
Tonka Hemingway
Tyler Linderbaum
Kwity Paye
Quay Walker
Nakobe Dean
Kirk Cousins
Spencer Burford
Matt Gay
Connor Heyward
Foley Fatukasi
Fernando Mendoza
Treydan Stukes
Mike Washington Jr.
Zeke Masses
Taron Johnson
The list of players with great potential is also long:
Jack Bech
Caleb Rogers
Charles Grant
Dont'e Thornton Jr.
JJ Pegues
Cody Lindenberg
Keyron Crawford
Trey Zuhn III
Jermod McCoy
Malik Benson
That is a haul in two offseasons to add to a roster that already had players like Maxx Crosby, Brock Bowers, Michael Mayer, Tre Tucker, Kolton Miller, DJ Glaze, Malcolm Koonce, Adam Butler and A.J. Cole.
Not to mention, the team extended Crosby, Mayer, Miller, and Cole while re-signing Koonce twice.
Next offseason, the team will have another $62.4 million of salary cap space to work with, possibly more, and they have a pick in each of the first six rounds, including an additional sixth-round pick. The Raiders' front office can continue adding significant pieces to the roster next offseason.
Given where they are record-wise, Las Vegas could also buy or sell at the deadline to either add more promising pieces into the equation or to dump waning assets and keep building for the future. The Raiders are almost in a no-lose situation.
Let us not forget, either, that Fernando Mendoza has not played a critical snap yet. If Las Vegas hit on the quarterback position as it thinks it did, everything else becomes less important by comparison. Having the right guy under center masks a lot of issues and gives leadership a lot of leeway.
This season was about taking a step in the right direction, and if the Raiders can just string together a few more wins while staying competitive in every game and giving their young players tons of run, then this will be a successful campaign. Yes, they're trying to win, but the long game is crucial, too.
Think about how much better all of these young players will be in a year or two because of the reps they are getting right now. Think about all of the lessons that Kubiak and Spytek are learning early in their careers while the pressure to win a Super Bowl is not coming from ownership or the fanbase.
Losing four straight games will always suck. But the reason it stings worse than it should right now is that this Raiders team was way ahead of schedule to begin the campaign before it was figured out a bit. A large portion of the fanbase got ahead of itself, but luckily, those in the building did not.
Remember that most of the big strugglers from this year won't be around in 2027, either.
The Raiders have youth throughout the building, a rock-solid plan to develop players, the tools and resources to build even more going forward, three wins already, and most importantly, I believe that they have the right head coach, general manager and quarterback to be a winning franchise.
So, don't give up on them because they lost a few games that they should have lost and were probably always going to lose. Raised expectations were a product of this team overachieving early, and they should not be punished for that or treated as if they are suddenly regressing.
Add us as a preferred source on Google