What the Raiders need.....2026

[STHfrontrow]

Next year the Raiders need to hire an up and coming offensive coach who has earned the opportunity to be a head coach. No more retreads or coaches who haven't worked their way up through the coaching farm. They tried hiring Ben Johnson and when that didn't succeed fell back on Pete Carroll. Hopefully we have better luck next year.

Draft a QB that can pair with the coach. No need for a retread QB unless a really great option becomes available (Stafford this year would've been great but was a pipe dream). I wouldn't mind AOC battling out the newly drafted rookie in camp.

Build the offensive line with the 2nd rd pick, through free agency, and a few we still have under contract. This is the most important step and hopefully the new coach can get a stellar O-line coach. IF Miller needs to be traded due to cap and his age I'm ok with that trade. Biggest issue is that the O-line needs to be the off season focus.

The defense also needs some help through free agency.

[Cruisin with Tooz]

Your scenario says we have the top spot and are offered 3 firsts. If we have the top pick, as weak as this QB class is overall, the top guys are still worth taking, so I take one of the top 2 rated guys.

DUPLICATE POST

[Attyla]

DUPLICATE POST

It is because you are not seeing the nuance

[Cruisin with Tooz]

A lot of the time “next years draft” seems better. I’ll take the better thing now than the maybe even better thing later. We have waited long enough.

You see what happens when you draft a cant miss RB, but dont have the OL to make it all happen. You just waste 1 year of his rookie deal. The same thing will happen if you draft a qb this time. He will either sit this year or get PTSD if they throw him to the wolves with this OL and his development will be stunted. Either way you are wasting a year or more of the financial advantage gained from his rookie deal. Not only that, you are not getting any cheap OL help until pick #35. At #35 you are not getting an elite OT prospect, unless he has some serious injury concerns.

If, as Atylla suggested, that top OT would be available around pick #5, a trade down with either the NYJ or CLE (who should be picking right there and who both need qbs) would be very attractive. Would they give up 3 1sts? I dont know. I do know that there is no shortage of dopes in NFL front offices, and if it is true that TEN turned down the NYG offer of 3 1sts for a qb who probably wasnt even remotely close to being a top 10 prospect, its possible they might. And we know for a fact that JAX gave up 2 1sts and a 2nd to move up 3 spaces to take a position player who hadnt played a single snap in the NFL.

Whether we take a qb or not this time, I dont see this as a one year turnaround. Were still picking #6-8 next year. If you could turn #1 pick this year into #5 and other future picks ( whether that's 2 future 1sts or 1 future 1st and 1 future 2nd), and then use those future picks to turn your #7 pick next year into the #2-3 pick, that would be a good match for the team's needs. Use this year's #5 to immediately fix the weakness at ROT on the cheap. Get OGs either in FA or round 2. Then get your qb next year (who is likely to be a better qb prospect) when youre able to protect and develop him, so you dont waste any of the 5-year advantage youre afforded by having him on his rookie deal.

[Cruisin with Tooz]

It is because you are not seeing the nuance

My post is the duplicate, not yours.

[Attyla]

My post is the duplicate, not yours.

You quoted mine, kinda confusing

[Cruisin with Tooz]

You quoted mine, kinda confusing

It was a duplicate post where I quoted you from yesterday.

[ELCAraiderfan]

Everything starting with the loser at the top

[raiderjohn]

Starts at the top. Spytek is the leader of the football operations side, so all, ALL decisions have to run through him. Lets start running the organization properly. I rather hire a no name coach than a name like Carroll that type of power.

This trash, Mark hires the HC, gives him final personnel call authority, then Brady hires the OC, Carroll hires his kids so the Raiders can baby sit them. You got 2 people hiring who should not be. If Brady wants to hire the OC, then put your headset on and be the HC. These guys have to stop being chummy with each other and stay in their own lane.

[Dr Death]

The Raiders need a YOUNG, hungry coach. The Raiders need to give said coach a 5 year contract to build and refine his team... guaranteed. If he fails.... see ya! The Raiders need Mark to stay the f[raiders_icon]ck out of everything.... except signing paychecks.

[LayneStaley]

Didn’t Davis make the call on Ruggs in 2020? Over Ceedee. f[raiders_icon]ck him.

[Tatum]

[quote="Sold My Soul'] new ownership.

Nothing else matters.[/quote]

[Rainman56]

I thought the Raiders should have traded Crosby last offseason. I'm even more convinced they should trade him this offseason while his value is still high...

.........

The in-season trade deadline may have passed by a few weeks ago, but trade rumors are a 24/7, 365 kind of thing around here. If we’ve learned anything about the NFL in the past few years, it’s that teams are more willing to be aggressive and creative than at any point in a long, long time.

With time to mull things over and start to look ahead to 2026, there were more players who popped as potential trade candidates — beyond the list of eight who came up as first glance earlier this month. Here’s a look at another batch of big names who might end up on the move:

Raiders DE Maxx Crosby

The Raiders have been turning down trade interest in Crosby for two years now, including at the trade deadline in both 2024 and 2025. But eventually if the league keeps knocking, perhaps the door will crack open — especially because it’s looking more and more like Crosby will be playing for his fourth different head coach in four years in 2026. Crosby has seen just one winning season in seven years in Las Vegas, and the Raiders look poised for another rebuilding year in his eighth.

So far, Crosby has elected not to push for a trade, saying that he wants to be part of bringing the glory days back to the Raiders. The team has done its part to make sure Crosby’s loyalty is rewarded, too, either signing him to a new deal or modified contract in three of the past four seasons. The most recent was a three-year, $106.5 million extension this past offseason, before he’d even played a down for HC Pete Carroll and GM John Spytek.

Ordinarily deals like that would preclude any trade because of the dead money left behind from signing bonuses and restructures. However, that’s not the case for Crosby. Trading him in 2026 would leave just $5 million in dead money and save the Raiders the entirety of Crosby’s $30 million guaranteed salary. It’s similar to the contract for Jets CB Sauce Gardner which didn’t preclude New York from dealing him just a few months after inking him to a market-setting deal. Teams took note of how the Jets structured Gardner’s deal and you can bet they’ve made the same observation with Crosby and the Raiders.

There are two ways Crosby could end up on the block. The first is if the veteran reaches his limit with all the losing and starts applying pressure on the front office to send him out of town. His leverage isn’t great with four years left on his contract; however, teams tend to want players who are bought in and want to be there. While Crosby can’t force a trade, his voice does matter in the situation.

The Raiders could also decide on their own that dealing Crosby makes the most sense for where they are as an organization. Crosby is a foundational piece — one of the league’s elite pass rushers and also one of the hardest working, highest-effort players in the building. That’s why the Raiders have rebuffed so much trade interest in the past and why Carroll and Spytek were willing to give him a massive deal before seeing him play a snap in their program. But the 2-10 record so far this year has exposed the vast multitude of roster holes the Raiders need to patch, and the front office has seemingly accepted that it’s facing a multi-year rebuild.

Crosby turns 29 next August and is still in his peak. The question the Raiders have to ask, though, is what he projects to look like in two or three years when they’re closer to being competitive. And in that scenario, does it make more sense to trade him for a haul of picks that could be used on players who would be contributors for longer?

This is the same calculus the Jets went through when they elected to blow things up at the trade deadline this past year. Like the Jets, the Raiders have a first-year general manager looking to make his mark. This is why teams are going to keep calling and giving the Raiders something to think about when it comes to trading Crosby, and at some point the team might just pull the trigger.

Maxx wanted to stay.Part of the trade deal teams had was he had to scrap his podcast

[Caradhras Raider]

Agreed with OP, might as well burn it all down. Again. This fantasy that this team can build off current players needs to end.

Ownership really needs to figure their stuff out and stay in their lanes. Mark Davis, Tom Brady, Jim Gray, Mark Thewes, Spytek and whoever tf else is trying to make decisions need to stfu and do their jobs. No more of this ambiguity with 50 different reports about how messed up the internals are a Raider HQ.

Once they figure that out, (and I really don't think they will until Mark moves on) then you can build a culture. HC reports to GM reports to ONE Owner. Short and sweet.

IF I were making decisions, I would clean house again. The missteps are magnified every time this happens, so what do you change? Mark LOVES big names that come from winning and promise big things. Hire an unknown. Hire the up and coming OC. AND GIVE HIM 4 YEARS. 3 of those years he will be immune to any outside interference. Don't call him. Don't say hi in the hallway. Don't send a Christmas card. Leave him and the GM alone.

Draft your QB this year. If he sucks, draft another one with the R1 pick next year. If they all go back to school and it's clear there are no R1 graded QBs in the draft, pack the OL room with studs. The Utah tackles immediately come to mind.

Oh, and cut Geno.

[Hellbound]

Didn’t Davis make the call on Ruggs in 2020? Over Ceedee. fck him.

That's the rumor

[Dr Death]

Agreed with OP, might as well burn it all down. Again. This fantasy that this team can build off current players needs to end.

Ownership really needs to figure their stuff out and stay in their lanes. Mark Davis, Tom Brady, Jim Gray, Mark Thewes, Spytek and whoever tf else is trying to make decisions need to stfu and do their jobs. No more of this ambiguity with 50 different reports about how messed up the internals are a Raider HQ.

Once they figure that out, (and I really don't think they will until Mark moves on) then you can build a culture. HC reports to GM reports to ONE Owner. Short and sweet.

IF I were making decisions, I would clean house again. The missteps are magnified every time this happens, so what do you change? Mark LOVES big names that come from winning and promise big things. Hire an unknown. Hire the up and coming OC. AND GIVE HIM 4 YEARS. 3 of those years he will be immune to any outside interference. Don't call him. Don't say hi in the hallway. Don't send a Christmas card. Leave him and the GM alone.

Draft your QB this year. If he sucks, draft another one with the R1 pick next year. If they all go back to school and it's clear there are no R1 graded QBs in the draft, pack the OL room with studs. The Utah tackles immediately come to mind.

Oh, and cut Geno.

Fuckin' eh!