What Lessons Week 1 Can Teach New-Look Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders start off a new era, do so in a hostile environment against a talented New England Patriots team.

Aug 7, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Las Vegas Raiders center Jackson Powers-Johnson (58) celebrates with running back Dylan Laube (23) after Laube scored a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the second half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

The Las Vegas Raiders will enter Week 1 against the New England Patriots with several young players in vital positions on the field. For some teams, that is the case by happenstance. However, for the Raiders, that is by design.

Following practice this week, Raiders Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham noted that although the Raiders have a young defensive backfield, he does not believe age or experience matters as much as performance does.

"Youth, experience, and all that stuff, it gets overrated to a certain degree. It's about how we perform on Sunday and then how we build to that performance in practice. So whether it's a rookie, a vet, doesn't matter, it's about how we prepare and then how we perform on Sundays,” Graham said.

“But I'm sure the vets, they're able to help some of the young players in terms of stuff they anticipate. But all that stuff gets overrated in my opinion. I've had really good rookies that played really well their first game. I had veterans that played bad in their first game of the season. So it doesn't matter." 

Graham has been one of the holdovers from the past two coaching regimes the Raiders have had. Graham has experienced all of the highs and lows that have come with the Raiders over the past few seasons. He has done a solid job considering all the team has been through.

This offseason, Graham lost nearly half of his starters in free agency this offseason. Las Vegas added significant talent in response to the many departures they had. The new additions are talented, but they are still new additions. It will take time for everyone to gel together.

Graham noted that communication will be more critical than normal, as the Raiders' defense will be on the road in their first regular season together. Communication will be the Raiders' best hope of negating some of the New England Patriots' homefield advantage.

"Everything's communication on defense. I can't harp on that enough. Based on what the Patriots are going to do, that's going to be big, communicating based on what we're doing defensively. We got to communicate. That's something that's common, no matter what,” Graham said.

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