Inside the Raiders’ Rebuild: Why 2026 Feels Different

HENDERSON, Nev. — The sun was just setting over the mountains that surround the Las Vegas valley when the day's activities came to a rest in preparation for the 2026 NFL draft.

This year’s version, according to one team official, “has a completely different feel from any I have ever been here for, even last year.”

Feb 24, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It should be different.

Las Vegas Raiders GM John Spytek, and minority owner Tom Brady | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Last year, first-year GM John Spytek, along with minority owner Tom Brady and Pete Carroll, was trying to make a puzzle fit.

Not one of the men was or is a bad person. Looking back, it was a doomed collaboration.

All of them love football, all of them are passionate about the game, but while Spytek and Brady are not afraid to differ, they often find the difference is not where they want to go on the map, but in the route to get there.

Las Vegas Raiders GM John Spytek | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

With Carroll and the three of them, sometimes it was an entirely different map. It was a tough lesson.

You can’t build a winner by just getting football junkies; you have to be on the same page for everything.

Las Vegas Raiders Owner Mark Davis, GM John Spytek | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Even the things that you aren’t have to be route-related rather than directional.

As one team official said, “It was as night-and-day different as you could get. The building wasn’t full of people that didn’t love the game. It was just a lot of different people seeing things in a lot of different ways.”

Mar 21, 2026; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Founders FFC quarterback Tom Brady (12) talks with fans during the Fanatics Flag Football Classic at BMO stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

None of those in leadership last year dislikes or even discredits the others; it didn’t work.

Las Vegas Raiders GM John Spytek and Pete Carroll | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

A New Dawn

Since the Raiders made the decision—before the end of the season—that a change was coming from the top of the leadership ladder, things have been different.

Last year, John Spytek had some of his key pieces, but not all of them. Over the course of the year, like a maestro conducting the finest orchestra, he had assembled his team.

Las Vegas Raiders AGM Brian Stark | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Everyone was, and is in place. I asked him recently what he had learned, and the normally stoic general manager was verbose.

“It’s great having him [Brian Stark] here, and that’s been a big help. But to rely on the people around me more than I did last year. I think I tried to do too much last year, not knowing everybody in the building, and having my own vision of what I wanted to teach people about the way we wanted to do it and how we wanted to build the kind of person we were looking for."

Feb 10, 2026; Henderson, NV, USA; Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak speaks at introductory press conference at Intermountain Health Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

"And I think it’s always important to really have great people around you and trust and empower them to do their jobs, to support you as well as they can.”

Las Vegas Raiders superstar talent evaluator Brandon Yeargan | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Setting a New Foundation

All was not lost in 2025. It was a terrible and dysfunctional year. But from it, the Silver & Black learned many difficult lessons.

Lessons that, if they learned from them, and it appears they might have, helped set the foundation that is 2026, and the start of a resurgence in a franchise that once struck fear in its opponents.

Raiders Owner Mark Davis | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

One NFL executive in Phoenix for league meetings earlier this year told me, “For a long time, the Raiders went around like the guy that was a good football player 40 years ago in high school, but never did anything with himself after. He is sitting down at the town bar, watching his varsity jacket rot, drinking beers, when old classmates come to town trying to relive the glory years.”

He added, “Not anymore. They are hungry. They understand that resting on what they used to allow them to rot, and they are rebuilding the whole thing,” and for emphasis added, “The entire f---ing thing.”

Las Vegas Raiders John Spytek | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Perspective

The Raiders’ organization, long before John Spytek or Tom Brady arrived, had started the deterioration. The atrophy from greatness began before Mark Davis even took the reins.

None of those men was responsible for the slide’s start, but last year they made it clear that the three of them were needed to fix it.

There were several blunt, but brutally honest conversations as the plan emerged. With each step, the parties would ask each other and hold one another accountable for how that choice affects the plan. In each case, ideas were embraced or scrapped, but as one person said, “It was the most un-Raider thing, egos, from everyone, were checked at the door.”

If an idea was embraced, there was no looking back. If an idea was scrapped, there was no looking back. A rejected idea was not a rejection of Mark Davis, Tom Brady, John Spytek, Brian Stark, or Brandon Yeargan. It was a rejection of a bad idea.

Las Vegas Raiders GM John Spytek, and AGM Brian Stark | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Everyone agreed the “Raider Way” was to win, but now they were all coming to an agreement on how to do so.

The Big Fish

No one disliked Pete Carroll. His resume was that of football royalty. His way was not going to be the Raider way. As the process progressed, Spytek whittled his perfect coach down to painstaking detail. He talked, he sought, he implored for more and more information, and as the team dug into what they really needed, every road came back to Klint Kubiak.

They identified Klint Kubiak, the rising star, as the exact piece this leadership team needed next. Not a yes man, and far from a grizzled vet set in his ways, he was confident enough to speak out and intelligent enough to listen.

One Raider employee said, “When Klint first got here, he fit so well that you wondered if everyone was just playing nice, and then you realized that wasn’t the case at all. Its unity. We are united. Every person in this building is on the same page. I don’t think anyone has ever tried to sabotage the Raiders; it was just that everyone saw it differently. Now there is one way.”

Kubiak assembled a staff that fit as well. The scouring process, the evaluation process, and the assembly of those processes, broken down into tangible evidence, was exhaustive but revealing.

Off-Field and On-field

The Raiders had done the things off the field to identify what they needed to do. They addressed it. While far from a finished product, the direction is now evident and clear.

The on-field additions began with free agency and evaluating their own roster.

Las Vegas Raiders QB Kirk Cousins | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

The Raiders have started assembling the pieces that fit, with those they have, and the biggest effort to rebuild the Raiders on the field comes tomorrow.

The 2026 NFL selection process, more commonly known as the NFL draft, will commence at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, and at about 5:13 PT, Roger Goodell will announce that Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza will be the Silver & Black’s next franchise QB.

Apr 21, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza prepares to throw the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images | Rhona Wise-Imagn Images

They have nine other picks (I do not expect them to use only these), as they have made calls to move around and have been called by others wishing to do the same. Over the next three days, picks will be made that will propel them into their future.

When 2026 comes to an end, the Raiders won’t be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, but I expect the Raider Nation will have tangible evidence that ’25 will no longer be seen as the “lost year” but rather a reflective one.

Rock bottom, where they realized they couldn’t sink any lower. It was time to stop watching their past Lombardi trophies rot and go get some new ones.

They looked in the mirror, and like the movie The Lion King, “Remember who you are.” 2026 is a foundational year across the franchise.

Deciphering the Pigskin Secret Code

For the first time in my seven seasons covering this team, they seem to have found themselves.

We can’t fool ourselves; we live in Vegas. The odds are against a rebuild, a first-time head coach, both offensive and defensive first-time coordinators, and a rookie QB.

But we also can’t pretend that the reason people come to Vegas is that, at times, the odds makers are wrong.

The discipline that brought them to the eve of the 2026 NFL Draft could all go away in the blink of an eye; this franchise has abandoned course prematurely before. But until it does, I believe what I see.

Apr 21, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza reacts after throwing the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images | Rhona Wise-Imagn Images

This is Vegas, bet on black, or should I say, Silver & Black.

Welcome to the draft. It took a ton of work, but your Raiders are ready.

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