The 2025 NFL season has been a disastrous one for the Las Vegas Raiders. After an explosive offseason that included hiring Pete Carroll, trading for Geno Smith, and drafting Ashton Jeanty, the Raiders were expected to make a quick turnaround. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.
After 12 weeks, things have been just as bad, if not worse. Las Vegas is 2-8 on the season, and fans are having the same conversations about the team that they had a year ago. For as rough as things have been this season, there’s a chance they could get even worse on Sunday.
Las Vegas will host the Cleveland Browns for a Week 12 matchup at Allegiant Stadium, and rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders will be making his first career start. Considering his history with the Raiders, it will be embarrassing for the franchise if Sanders comes to town and dominates.
Raiders must avoid being embarrassed by Shedeur Sanders in Week 12
This time last year, when Sanders was a top college quarterback and the Raiders were in line for a top-10 draft pick, everyone was linking the two sides as a likely partnership. Sanders was even attending Las Vegas Aces games with owner Mark Davis and posting videos of Allegiant Stadium.
Fans then started photoshopping the quarterback into Las Vegas uniforms and bringing signs to home games emphasizing how much they wanted Sanders. Oh, and everyone in the football world was pointing out the young quarterback’s relationship with minority owner Tom Brady.
Things got to a point where people started calling Sanders to the Raiders the worst-kept secret in football. However, when the 2025 NFL Draft actually rolled around, Las Vegas curiously passed on the quarterback seven different times.
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The Raiders contributed to a historically surprising slide for Sanders before he was ultimately selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round with the 144th overall pick. There, he was destined to sit behind a slew of veterans and fellow rookie third-rounder Dillon Gabriel.
Now, 12 weeks into the season, Sanders is slated to make the first start of his career, in Las Vegas, but for the opposing team. While the Raiders aren’t good, neither are the 2-8 Browns. That creates the perfect storm for Sanders to come to Las Vegas and make a statement.
With all the eyes that will surely be watching, if the rookie quarterback leads Cleveland to a win over the Raiders, and especially if he looks good while doing it, the narrative machine will be in overdrive. Even a strong outing in a loss could be enough to get people talking.
One of the narratives would surely be about how Las Vegas passed over Sanders, only for him to come into the team’s building and beat them while the franchise is still in disarray. The season has already been tough enough for the Raiders, and they don’t want to add this storyline to their resume.