The Las Vegas Raiders are 3-0 to start the 2026 campaign and, as one of the — if not biggest — surprise teams in the league, the memes popping up are hilarious. Like this one regarding the unbeaten AFC teams that include: The Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Silver & Black.
But Klint Kubiak’s surging football team is indeed, no laughing matter.
Las Vegas entered the new year with severely low expectations coming off a 3-14 season that gave the team the No. 1 overall selection in the 2026
NFL Draft, which ended up being Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. General manager John Spytek was flush with coin and spent the cap space wisely by landing high-priced free agents like center Tyler Linderbaum and linebackers Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker, to name a few.
But despite the influx in talent in both free agency and the draft, expectations remained tempered with analytics models giving the Raiders a 6.7 percent chance of starting 3-0.
After topping the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Chargers to start the season, caveats popped up immediately. Such as the lowly Dolphins and listless Chargers were cupcakes and of course the Raiders beating them was going to happen — dismissive in nature.
Week 3, however, provided a more sound litmus test against the equally surging Saints and things did look dire as Las Vegas fell very much behind against New Orleans — all of which was their own doing. And the biggest reason why this rendition of the Raiders came back to drop the Saints: Complementary football.
“We don’t win the game without those four turnovers in the fourth quarter,” Kubiak said during his Monday media session. “That was impressive how they kept getting the ball back for us on offense, and it just really changed the whole game. And again, that’s a big part of winning and losing, is protecting the ball and taking the ball away. So, three games into it, long season to go, and every week’s a new challenge. We’re starting from scratch now back for Kansas City.”
The comeback road win was the latest example of Kubiak and Co. delivering a resounding double-fisted middle finger to said projections and naysayers, alike.
Complementary football — a fleeting thing for previous Raiders regimes — is the standout item that’s giving Las Vegas the resilience. And that’s something Kubiak was keen to learn about his football team.
“Well, I think that the number one thing is you don’t really get to find out about somebody until the chips are down and their back’s against the wall. So, our backs were against the wall yesterday, down two scores,” Kubiak said. “So, we found out a lot about guys’ resilience and toughness because everything’s fine if you’re up two scores at the end of the game. But what do you do when you’re down two scores?”
Rising to the occasion was a foreign concept for the Raiders variants of year’s past and the rookie head coach alongside his coaching staff are flipping that narrative. As Kubiak highlighted immediately after the victory against the Saints, the four fourth-quarter takeaways was the catalyst to the turn around. With his offense getting the ball back after a trio of fumbles and an interception, Kubiak wasn’t going to let that go to waste.
He dialed up plays that resulted in four-yard touchdown passes from veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins to wide receiver Cody White and Brock Bowers, in respective drives which vaulted Las Vegas ahead 35-27. And the final forced fumble — by Dean — helped the Silver & Black slam the door shut on the Saints.
The outstanding fourth-quarter performance by defensive coordinator Rob Leonard’s defense boosts the team’s takeaway total to nine — which leads the league, by the way. The Carolina Panthers are second with seven takeaways on the young season. (For reference: The Raiders had 16 total takeaways in 2025, good for 24th in the league).
Leonard — a rookie coach himself as defensive boss — is proving the “attacking defense” he spoke about this offseason wasn’t just talk. Remarkably, the Raiders defense is aggressive and putting opposing offenses on its heels without being a blitz-heavy unit. Las Vegas has the eighth lowest blitz rate in the league at 19.5 percent (22 blitzes called), according to Pro Football Reference. The Minnesota Vikings, who are atop the league and on a different spectrum altogether, pace the NFL with a 66.4 percent rate on 89 total blitzes called.
“I think just the whole staff — the whole defensive staff — are doing a great job getting on the same page with each other. And nothing was perfect yesterday but found a way to get it done,” Kubiak said when asked about Leonard’s defense. “Great communication on the sideline, and just a credit to the players for finishing the game four turnovers, that was the game right there.”
But as Kubiak noted above, Week 4 brings the Chiefs to town. And the battle of the 3-0 AFC West teams is set be one of the best matchups this Sunday. That contest is the first of nine grueling games for Las Vegas before the team’s bye week after a November 29 road game against the Cleveland Browns.
There’s no looking ahead for Kubiak and Co., but following the Chiefs, the Raiders go on the road to face the New England Patriots, return home to face the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams in back-to-back weeks, to close out the month of October.
So it was only natural Kubiak was asked about the importance of momentum as the team gets ready for tough opponents.
“Yeah, they all are important. Every game, it’s a every week you’re just focused on that one opponent,” Kubiak responded. “When it’s a division opponent, you know there’s even more on the line.”
There’s indeed a Raiders renaissance happening and it’s being led by two rookie coaches: Kubiak at 39 years old and Leonard at 41 years old. It’s a long season ahead and we’ll learn even more about these particular Raiders come this Sunday against the Chiefs and beyond.
There will surely be the lows this season as the highs have been both impressive and surprising. Defeat will come at some point.
And how Kubiak and Co. responds to that will be intriguing. If it’s like anything we’ve seen from the in-game response to adversity, word to the wise: Be prepared to be impressed — again.
