Las Vegas Raiders have plenty to learn from the playoffs

The opening round of the NFL Playoffs embarked this past weekend and it didn’t disappoint.

Well, that is unless the team you root for was ousted.

It was an entertaining foray into the postseason chase as of the five wild card round tilts, four were nail-biting thrillers. The nightcap, however, was a lopsided beatdown. And it was the AFC West’s Los Angeles Chargers who were on the receiving end of said thumping.

Wild Card Scores
NFC

• (5) Los Angeles Rams 34, (4) Carolina Panthers 31
• (2) Chicago Bears 31, (7) Green Bay Packers 27
• (6) San Francisco 49ers 23, (3) Philadelphia Eagles 19

AFC

• (6) Buffalo Bills, (3) Jacksonville Jaguars 24
• (2) New England Patriots 16, (7) Los Angeles Chargers 3

For the 18 teams watching the playoffs from afar, the postseason dance is always opportune time to learn why others are still playing for that coveted Lombardi Trophy. The rebuilding Las Vegas Raiders have plenty to glean from these playoff games. And here are four key takeaways from this past weekend:

1. Hitting on the coach and quarterback can result in rapid turnarounds.
2. Protect the quarterback.
3. Tailbacks as pass catchers.
4. Special teams merit attention too.

The Coach & Quarterback Combo

Caleb Williams was already there as the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft and a year later, in comes rookie head coach Ben Johnson. That young quarterback and coach combo — wink, wink, Raiders — is showcasing you hit on the lead men at arguably the two most important parts of a football team and rapid turnarounds are indeed possible.

“The league is littered with when you get the top pick right, those guys are franchise altering players,” Raiders general manager John Spytek said in his season-ending press conference last Monday. “There’s probably no more important hire in an NFL organization than the head coach. They’re the daily guy. They set the vision, they set the cadence. They are what touches the players every day and demand excellence from players. And the players are the ones that have to go out there and do it. And the more good players you have, and the better person at the helm that you have steering that ship, my experiences is, the more successful you are.

“And you look at, are there two more important hires in an organization than a quarterback and a head coach? I think we probably all would agree that those two men usually steer the ship, and that’s out in front of us right now.”

The Silver & Black is off and running on its coach search interviewing candidates this week with a slew of requests made this weekend. The presumptive prospect Las Vegas will select with the No. 1 overall pick is Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

For Las Vegas, the team has the opportunity to land both a new head coach and a quarterback — especially with the top pick in...