The Raiders had one of the worst seasons in the league and ended up with a 4-13 record. Through the tiebreaker process, they only ended up with the sixth pick in the 2025 draft. Enter Tom Brady: he finally got league approval to purchase 5% of the team, and he apparently wants to be the next former player turned executive. By all accounts he will be for the Raiders, what John Elway was for the Broncos. I wouldn’t bet against him.
QB
In hockey, there’s a saying; “if you have two goalies, you have none”. The same is true in football regarding QBs. Gardner Minshew started nine games this year, and Aiden O’Connell started seven…and neither was very good. Gardner threw more interceptions than TDs, and his QB rating was only 81. O’Connell only had a 2/1 ratio of TD/INT, and his QB rating was much better, only sitting at 86.7.
RB
The Raiders passing numbers weren’t awful, mainly due to constantly playing from behind. Their running game was terrible for the same reason. In fact, they were dead last in rushing offense. They did not have a running back who gained more than 420 yds. Along with the below-average rushing yards, Alexander Mattison’s rushing average was terrible, too, at only 3.2 yards per run. Ameer Abdullah only gained 311 yds, and Zamir White came in at 183 yds. Their three main rushers couldn’t even muster 1000 yds combined. This will need to be addressed in the offseason.
WR
Amazingly, the Raiders produced two 1000-yard receivers. Jacobi Myers gained 1027 passing yards, with a solid 67.4 catch %, while rookie TE Brock Bowers caught 73.2%of the passes thrown to him, with a whopping and record-breaking 112 catches and 1194 yds. If there is one positive on the team, it is here.
Defense
The team still has one of the league’s premier pass rushers in Maxx Crosby. He’s been rather vocal about his displeasure with the team, not wanting to be part of a rebuild. Maybe Brady can convince him to stick it out, that good things are on the horizon; and sooner rather than later. Although they did give up over 100 more pts than they scored, they only averaged a little over 18 pts per game on offense. It’s tough for any D to consistently win if your offense can’t even get to 20 pts. Their defense does need improvement, but they are close. They finished the year 12th in rushing defense and 16th in passing defense.
Coaching
Brady has already put his mark on the team, choosing their next head coach. He snagged Pete Carroll out of retirement. And although he enters as the league’s oldest coach, he brings a tremendous resume with him on line one: Superbowl Champion, creating a defense referred to as the Legion of Boom. That alone may be enough to keep Crosby in check. Carroll will identify the team’s needs and build a solid product, similar to what Jim Harbaugh did this year with the Chargers. The team needs a QB, RB, and O-line. Look for Carroll to scour the available free agents to fill these needs.
