Does Year 2 of general manager John Spytek’s tenure with the Las Vegas Raiders warrant increased skepticism? It’s a fair question to ask once you remove your fandom.
The narrative around the Raiders this offseason is a compelling one: a second-year general manager finding his footing, a clean roster break from the past and addition by subtraction masquerading as progress. Look, it’s a nice story but Raider Nation has been fed this before only to be disappointed. Maybe it’s a bit premature?
Yes, Spytek has been active. Yes, shedding Geno Smith was the right call. But framing the absence of bad players as a building block for sustainable success conflates roster hygiene with genuine roster construction. Those are not the same thing.
Starting with the foundation…
The Raiders finished 2025 as one of the worst teams in football, and the offseason praise directed at Spytek rests heavily on the logic that things could not get much worse. That is a low bar dressed up as progress.
Signing Matt Gay instead of Daniel Carlson is, at best, a lateral move. Gay is 33 years old and has recently experienced inconsistency in his performance. Claiming that Caleb Rogers and Spencer Burford are upgrades over Dylan Parham before they have played any significant snaps is more speculative than analytical. I don’t want to sound overly dramatic, but anyone with a solid understanding of football can see that these concerns are valid.
The larger issue is structural. Spytek and first-year head coach Klint Kubiak are operating in lockstep, which sounds encouraging until you remember that organizational continuity between a rookie GM and a first-time head coach is unproven continuity. The Raiders have cycled through this kind of optimistic reset before, most recently with Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels, and it ended in dysfunction before the second season concluded.
The QB dilemma for the Raiders…
The quarterback situation, perhaps the most critical variable of all, remains unresolved. Smith is gone, rightfully so, but his replacement has not been firmly established. No offense, but no matter how creatively constructed by Kubiak, it overcomes chronic instability at the game’s most important position. The Raiders have one elite addition, as the original piece notes, but elite additions without elite quarterback play have a ceiling.
None of this is to say Spytek is failing. He may well be building something real. But the window between “better than last year” and “competitive in 2026” is vast, and the current evidence does not yet bridge that gap. Calling the Raiders’ offseason a success in late March is writing the review before the film has screened.
Actual progress and promise are not the same thing but if nothing else, Las Vegas is giving off some hope. The real question is whether Spytek, Kubiak, and Co. will deliver some proof.
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty ImagesÂ