It’s the bye week and if you’re anything like me, you could use a break from getting disappointed by the Las Vegas Raiders this season. I know I’m looking forward to a stress-free and relaxing Sunday,
but first, we have this week’s mailbag to get to, focusing on the rest of the season, free agency and the 2026 NFL draft.
Q: Of the rookies that haven’t gotten a real chance yet, which one do you think will end up with the biggest impact by the end of the season? My bet is Darien Porter.
A: I’m with you on Porter. I’ve been a fan of his game for a while and think he’ll get a bigger opportunity in the second half of the season, considering Kyu Blu Kelly’s struggles. It wouldn’t surprise me if the rookie gets his first start next week against the Jaguars and becomes a mainstay in the starting lineup. He’s done everything the coaching staff has asked him to do with his limited opportunities so far.
The other rookie I’ll throw out there is Jack Bech. At this point, I’d be more surprised if Jakobi Meyers is still on the team after the trade deadline than if he gets dealt. So, I think Bech will get more snaps moving forward, and he’s been solid on the few that he’s gotten so far.
Bech was open for a touchdown against the Colts when Geno Smith’s pass got tipped at the line of scrimmage and then picked, and the TCU product has been doing a decent job of getting separation, even if he isn’t getting the ball.
Q: Is the best course of action at this point, in what can only be described as a dismal season, to approach the remaining games like they were preseason affairs? By that I mean see let’s see what the rookies have, run the ball regardless of the score, try various plays that might not be called if one were considering only the score, etc. Why not experiment? Oddly, I would not be surprised if the Raiders actually wound up winning some games they would otherwise lose by taking such an approach.
A: Someone else asked how the Raiders can “tank” without being obvious about it, and I think this is the best way to do that. Of course, the players and coaches are still going to try to win the game to prove themselves, but giving the young guys bigger opportunities and essentially treating the games like practice for them is how, in my opinion, Las Vegas should operate over the next few months.
The team has been trying to win with the veterans but that, obviously, isn’t working. Might as well start thinking about the future and giving the young bucks more live reps to help develop them. And I agree that might lead to the Raiders winning a few games that no one expects them to. At this point in the season, the focus should be less on the scoreboard and more on developing the roster/the long-term plan.
Q: Are you surprised with how this season has gone? Were you initially happy with the choices of John Spytek and Pete Carroll?
A: I’m definitely surprised by how this season has gone. While I didn’t think the Raiders were going to be a playoff team, I thought they’d at least be a contender and finish around the seven- to nine-win mark. Now, I think this is a five-win team, at best, barring a jolt of energy from the youth movement in the second half of the campaign.
I was a fan of the Spytek hire initially because I like how the Buccaneers have built their roster, and Jason Licht, Tampa Bay’s general manager, is a good guy to learn from. Spytek and Licht go way back, first working together with the Eagles in 2005.
As for Carroll, my top two head coach candidates were Ben Johnson and Liam Coen, with Johnson being a little more of a pipe dream. So, I would have preferred it if the Raiders took a chance on Coen, but I wouldn’t say I was upset about the choice to hire Carroll. I’d say I was more neutral since he wasn’t my first or second choice.
Q: Assuming Carroll stays, how should the Raiders approach free agency?
A: To be honest, I hope the offseason/free agency plan isn’t impacted by who the head coach is. To me, the Raiders need to lean into the rebuild and focus on adding more young talent to the roster, rather than reloading with a handful of cheap veterans on short-term contracts like they did last spring. Ideally, the front office is relatively quiet in free agency, signing a few players who are entering their second contracts in the league and focusing on the draft.
I know that’s not what a lot of people want to hear because they’re tired of “rebuilding” and seeing middling results at best over the last 20-plus years, but it’s the best course of action, to me. I think you have to keep trying to get the right combination of young players to build the foundation of the team in order to have sustained success in this league.
Q: You said in a recent post that you expected (hoped?) that Spytek would insist on Pete playing the rookies. Why do you believe that, considering that Spytek didn’t push back on Pete wanting to bring his 2 (unqualified for their positions) sons with him? If that was a condition on Pete taking the job, that should have been a huge red flag, don’t you think?
A: Spytek and Carroll were hired at the same time, so I don’t think the general manager had any say in the head coach last offseason or the coaching staff. Also, I think it’s a lot harder to successfully push back when you’ve just been hired for your first general manager job and have a differing opinion from a head coach who has decades of experience and has had as much success as Carroll has had as a head coach.
However, now that the Raiders aren’t close to being a playoff contender this season, Spytek has a much stronger case to insist that the rookies get more playing time since the current combination of veterans isn’t yielding results. In other words, he has tangible evidence to support his case/argument.
If Carroll refuses and continues to be stubborn by playing aging players who aren’t producing, that’s the red flag everyone should be worried about.
Q: As a follow-up to the above, do you have faith that Spytek is up to this job?
A: I do. I’ll admit that I’ve been underwhelmed by his first season, but I like that he’s trying to build the roster through the draft and think that he deserves more than one year to flush out his long-term vision. Of course, getting more out of this year’s draft class is step one.
If it helps, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer shared a similar sentiment in his mailbag column this week.
Neither team, [Josh] McDaniels’s first or Carroll’s first, was close to competing for a championship, or even ready to jockey for position in the AFC West. But flashy offseasons can sometimes make fans see things that aren’t there, and this seems to be one of those cases.
I’d give the Raiders time. GM John Spytek is as sharp as they come and aligned with Tom Brady, who’s leading the Raiders’ crew of deep-pocketed minority owners. Carroll and his staff are capable of developing young talent. I think the team’s actually in position to make a leap next fall. So let’s reevaluate in February.
A: I’m not a fan of organizations forcing it with a quarterback prospect that it isn’t sold on just because the team needs one. I get it, it’s the most important position on the field, and the Raiders do need to address that glaring hole on the roster. But locking into drafting a quarterback is how teams end up in situations where they draft JaMarcus Russell over Calvin Johnson. (Lane was right!).
If the regime is all-in on making Fernando Mendoza, Dante Moore, Ty Simpson or whoever the future of the franchise, then go for it. If not, don’t let the pressure of drafting a quarterback prevent you from getting a great player at another position. Adding a rookie QB to a subpar roster overall likely isn’t going to yield results in the upcoming season anyway, especially if the organization is settling for someone it isn’t 100 percent sold on.
A: Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be a lot more of Geno Smith. I mentioned previously that I’d like to see Pickett get a shot if Smith doesn’t turn it around soon. However, Pickett kind of made me look stupid and didn’t do himself any favors by fumbling his first snap against the Chiefs. That said, there’s still no reason why Pickett shouldn’t at least get a shot if Smith continues to turn the ball over and struggle to put points on the board.
A: It’s definitely not a Tre Tucker issue, that’s for sure. He’s been one of the few bright spots this season.
Geno’s definitely lost some of the touch he’s had in the past, as his accuracy has been notably worse this year. Also, he’s forcing it a lot when trying to throw down the field, especially to Dont’e Thornton Jr.
A lot of the shots Smith has been taking aren’t open, and that’s why you’re seeing two defenders around the ball when he throws deep. As a result, Chip Kelly has been taking those opportunities away from Smith by giving him simpler and quicker reads. That’s frustrating because it’s what coaches do with a rookie quarterback, not a 13-year veteran.
So, the lack of deep ball success is a combination of accuracy issues and bad decision-making from Geno.
A: To start, I’ll say that it’s pretty unlikely that Maxx Crosby gets traded since the Raiders recently leaked to the media that they aren’t looking to move Crosby ahead of the deadline. Meanwhile, it’s also been reported that they’re open to trading Jakobi Meyers, and those two reports are pretty telling to me.
But, to answer the question, my minimum would be a first- and a second-round pick. Crosby is too good and valuable to be given up for just one pick, and I don’t think it would be unrealistic for Las Vegas to end up getting two firsts for him.
Someone else asked if I think the Raiders should trade Maxx. I touched on this a couple of weeks ago, and since then, I definitely have been leaning more toward yes after last week’s abysmal performance in Kansas City. Part of my reasoning is that I don’t know how much more losing and rebuilding he can take.
Also, the way last Sunday unfolded was a swift slap in my face of just how far off this roster is from being a legitimate competitor, and the return for Crosby could give the organization a handful of assets to solve that problem in the long run.
So, I don’t think anything will happen ahead of this year’s trade deadline, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Crosby asks for a trade or gets dealt in the offseason. The latter is still on the table, in my opinion.
Q: What would Al Davis think about this current Raiders cast and crew?
A: Especially after last week, he certainly wouldn’t be happy. I never got the chance to meet Al, but it doesn’t take his best friend to know that he didn’t have any patience for losing, especially getting blown out by the hated Chiefs. Heads would be rolling during the bye week if Al were still around.
That’ll do it for this week’s mailbag. Thank you all for submitting questions and, as your weekly reminder, if you’d like to have your questions answered in a future column, tweet them at me, @MHolder95, email them to SBPQuestions1@gmail.com or look for our weekly call for questions on the site. The latter will continue to publish on Thursdays.
