Rivals Roundup: Las Vegas Raiders

Let's examine the offseason moves made by the Chiefs' biggest rivals and AFC challengers.

Training camp has officially begun, and with it, my final series of articles for the offseason. In this series, I take a look at the offseason for each of the Chiefs’ AFC West rivals, as well as the three non-AFC West AFC teams with the highest odds to win the Super Bowl. How did last year go for each of these teams? What major changes have they made to coaches or organization? What did they do in Free Agency or the draft? It’s easy to forget what other teams have done once we get news flowing from training camp, so this is your refresher.

We start with the Las Vegas Raiders, who are the AFC West team with the lowest odds to win the Super Bowl this season. The Raiders hired Pete Carroll after going 4-13 in 2024, only to go 3-14 in 2025. They did end up with the first overall pick in the 2026 draft, so Pete’s tenure wasn’t without success. TE Brock Bowers continued to impress in his sophomore season, though he ended the season on IR due to a PCL injury he suffered early in the season but played through.

Pete Carroll was fired after the season, though GM John Spytek was retained. Carroll was replaced as HC by Klint Kubiak, who becomes their fifth head coach since they fired Jon Gruden in 2021. Did you know that the Raiders haven’t retained a head coach other than Jon Gruden for longer than 3 years since HC Art Shell (1989-1994)? That’s some absolutely bonkers instability at the top.

Anyway, let’s talk about the Raiders and free agency!