Thoughts on new leadership hire?

The Las Vegas Raiders have made their first big hire of the offseason as they have agreed to hire Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant general manager John Spytek as their new general manager, replacing the fired Tom Telesco.

Spytek, who is 44 years old, was considered a key part of a successful Tampa Bay front office. He has a reputation as a strong scouting eye who is a good team player and he is known as a calm decision maker.

Spytek has won Super Bowl rings while with both the Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos.

Spytek,...

Are we about to wrap things up?

The Las Vegas Raiders are halfway home in their two big hires.

Wednesday, the hired John Spytek of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their general manager. They still must hire their new head coach. Let’s look at where things stand:

Reported interview requests:

• Pete Carroll
• Aaron Glenn
• Ben Johnson
• Vance Joseph
• Todd Monken
• Ron Rivera
• Robert Salah
• Steve Spagnuolo

Off the board:

Johnson was hired by the Chicago Bears and Glenn was hired by the New York Jets.

Is there a favorite?

It’s been speculated...

Ties with Tom Brady helps

The Las Vegas Raiders have their new general manager as Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant general manager has been chosen to replace the fired Tom Telesco.

Here are some thoughts on the hiring of the 44-year-old Spytek.

He was the favorite all along:

This isn’t a shocking hire. Spytek has been considered the favorite since early in the process. He likely would have been the choice that the Raiders were able to hire Ben Johnson as coach. The Raiders’ talked to give other candidates for the job, Jon-Eric Sullivan, Sheldon White, Brandon Brown, Chad Alexander...

Tom Brady reunites with longtime friend as the Raiders hire a new general manager

In his first move as the part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, Tom Brady went with a familiar face.

The Raiders have reportedly hired John Spytek as their general manager. Spytek and Brady were teammates at Michigan in 1999 and they won a Super Bowl together in Tampa Bay in the 2020 season.

Spytek, 44, has been the assistant general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since 2023. He’s been an NFL scout or front-office executive for 19 years. He also won a Super Bowl...

Other than at quarterback, of course

As a new coaching staff and front office is about to take over, they will work toward improving the roster this offseason.

The Raiders many needs this offseason, starting at quarterback. Let’s look at their top five needs —- not including quarterback as the offseason starts to kick into high gear:

Running back:

The Raiders need a lot of help at the position who play right behind the quarterback. A good ground game will help the Raiders’ offense in 2025, especially if they can’t find a way to get the long-term solution at quarterback....

Looking at 2023 draft class in its 2nd season

Let’s look at how the Las Vegas Raiders 2023 draft class fared in the 2024 season and what to expect moving forward.

Six of the nine players from the draft class are currently in the program. The Raiders cut third-round pick Byron Young and he was claimed by the Philadelphia Eagles. He was inactive in Week 1. Seventh-round pick, defensive tackle Nesta Jade Silvera was cut in Week 7 and is now on the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad. Fourth-round pick, starting cornerback Jakorian Bennett is on the injured reserve with...

Head to the comments section to share your thoughts and join the conversation. You can sign up for a commenting account below and we have full-time moderators to enforce the Community Guidelines.

How much money would be left over if Las Vegas re-signs 8 key pending free-agent defenders?

The Las Vegas Raiders are currently projected to enter the 2025 offseason with the second-most cap space in the NFL at about $92.5 million, per Over The Cap.

However, what makes that number somewhat deceiving is that the Raiders have eight significant defensive players whose contracts are about to expire: safeties Tre’von Moehrig and Marcus Epps, linebackers Robert Spillane and Divine Deablo, cornerback Nate Hobbs, defensive end Malcolm Koonce, and defensive tackles Adam Butler and John Jenkins.

In a recent mailbag column, a Silver...

Former Raiders head coach back to familiar spot

We have a Josh McDaniels sighting.

And the last time to employ him, the Las Vegas Raiders, will face him the 2025 NFL season.

According to multiple reports, the New England Patriots are hiring McDaniels as their offensive coordinator.

The Raiders hired McDaniels as their head coach in 2022 and he was hired October 31, 2023. McDaniels went 9-16 as the Raiders hired coach. He did not work in the 2024 NFL season.

The Raiders will play at the Patriots this upcoming season.

It’s not surprising that McDaniels, 48, is resurfacing in...

What will new staff think?

We know a couple of things:
We won’t know anything until the new Las Vegas Raiders coaching staff and front office is assembled. They will evaluate the current roster and make a plan moving forward.

And we also know that when the new Las Vegas regime does get together to make their 2025 plan, the quarterback position very likely will be a top their lists of needs this season.

But we also know that the Raiders, who were 4-13 in 2024, have aplenty of other needs. They have holes to fill and shore up on...

There was a lot to like

Let’s look at how the Las Vegas Raiders’ rookie class fared in the 2024 season and what to expect moving forward:

Brock Bowers:

Yeah, the first-round pick did pretty good. The No. 13 overall pick had the greatest season by a rookie tight end in NFL history and it wasn’t close. He was an incredible record breaker. He finished the season with 112 catches for 1,194 yards and no rookie wide receiver ever even had as many catches as Bowers did. He’s an incredible talent who will be the centerpiece of this offense for...

It’s NFL oddity

Does anyone like it when an NFL game ends up in a tie?

I know I hate it. It seems like a wastes three hours for everyone. It leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. It screws up the NFL standings. It even knocks out two teams of survivor league.

Ties are awful.

So, the best two NFL seasons have been pretty cool. According to a recent tweet by CBS NFL reporter Johnathan Jones, the 2024 regular season was the second straight season with no tie games played, It’s the longest such streak since 2012.

We love...