The Las Vegas Raiders were the worst team in the NFL in 2025, finishing with a 3-14 record while producing the league’s bottom-ranked offense. The franchise has been one of the league’s worst over the past quarter-century, having produced just two winning seasons since 2002, but circumstances may not have ever been as bad as they are currently.
3 Questions That The Raiders Must Answer This Offseason
As the team shifts its focus to 2026 in the coming days and weeks, there will be plenty of questions to be answered. We take a look at three of the most important issues that the Raiders will have to deal with this offseason:
Q1: Who Will Be The Next Head Coach?
Since John Gruden was fired in 2021, the Raiders have employed four different head coaches (including interims), and the next will be their fifth. The team brought in Pete Carroll ahead of the 2025 campaign in hopes that his winning pedigree would follow him to Las Vegas, but the experiment was an abject disaster that lasted just one season.
The team is now one of seven in the NFL that feature job openings, and it figures to be one of the most attractive of the bunch. Not only does the team own the top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but they have over $100 million in projected cap space, the second-most of any team in the league. So far, some of the names that the Raiders have requested interviews with include Matt Nagy, Davis Webb, and Vance Joseph.
Q2: How Will The Raiders Use The Top Overall Draft Pick?
The Raiders have holes to fill throughout their roster, but have the draft capital to be able to address many of the needs this offseason. They not only own the highly-valuable first overall selection, but they have nine other picks in 2026 as well, including three within the first 67.
But given the lack of sure-fire, franchise-altering players available at the top of the draft board, there is a chance that Las Vegas trades out. They could pick up even more trade assets for this or next season in the process, and kick their search for a franchise QB down the road for a year. The Raiders have three months to decide, and opposing teams have three months to make offers.
Q3: Is Maxx Crosby A Part Of The Long-Term Plan?
There are only a couple of marquee players on the Raiders’ roster, and one of them could be on his way out the door. Maxx Crosby reportedly took issue with the team’s decision to make him inactive for the final games of the 2025 season, and there is apparently a growing rift between him and the upper levels of management.
There have been rumors of a Crosby trade for a couple of years now, but things appear to be coming to a head this offseason. With yet another new regime coming in by way of a new coach, the Raiders could choose to press the reset button on the franchise by dealing away their best player for a trove of future assets.
