The Las Vegas Raiders actually accomplished quite a bit during Week 14 of the 2025 NFL season. No, they didn't beat the Denver Broncos; they actually racked up their seventh-straight loss, as well as their 11th defeat in the last 12 games, which moved them to 0-5 in the AFC West this year.
But Las Vegas competed a bit more in Sunday's game than they have in recent contests against the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Chargers. Between the loss and other favorable results around the league, the Raiders also moved up from No. 4 to No. 2 in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Las Vegas also got several obvious contributions from players like rookie second-round wide receiver Jack Bech, rookie third-round cornerback Darien Porter and backup quarterback Kenny Pickett. But none of those were the most encouraging thing to come from Sunday's loss.
Caleb Rogers was the high point for Raiders in Week 14 loss to Broncos
That honor belongs to rookie third-round offensive guard Caleb Rogers, as the young player made his second career NFL start in Week 14. Instead of rotating with practice squad guard Atonio Mafi on Sunday, however, Rogers played the whole game against arguably the best defensive line in the NFL.
To put it simply, Rogers rose to the occasion. In 51 offensive snaps, including 41 pass-blocking snaps, Rogers pitched a complete shutout against the Broncos, according to Pro Football Focus. Zero sacks. Zero hits. Zero hurries. Zero pressures. Nothing.
In Week 10, Jackson Powers-Johnson and Alex Cappa combined to give up a sack and two hurries for a total of three pressures against Denver in four fewer pass-blocking stats. But the rookie held up even better than his veteran counterparts against a great defensive front.
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Rogers also made great plays like this one, where he picked up a stunt and kept Geno Smith clean in the pocket so he could get the ball out to Ian Thomas for a first down. It's things like this that don't stick out on the broadcast but are incredibly crucial to helping the Raiders' offense.
Head coach Pete Carroll, who has seemingly been resistant to playing the team's young players this year, told reporters all week that Rogers and Mafi were still battling. Carroll said that they'd decide who gets the game reps later on, but there was a chance that the two continued to rotate.
Obviously, that didn't happen, and the veteran leader had quite a bit of praise to heap on the young player during his post-game press conference on Sunday.
"Caleb got to play a whole game today. That's magnificent for us to evaluate and for his growth and all of that. It didn't seem like the issues were there. I didn't see any issues with him watching the game from the sidelines," Carroll said.
Something tells me that when Carroll turns on the film, he won't see many issues either. In a game that helped the Raiders move up two draft spots and saw several young players like Bech and Porter show out, Rogers was still the most encouraging piece of Las Vegas' loss to the Broncos.