Raiders owners Mark Davis, left, and Michael Meldman, center, meet with general manager John Sp ...
Raiders owners Mark Davis, left, and Michael Meldman, center, meet with general manager John Spytek before an NFL game at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (Heidi Fang/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @HeidiFang
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Hill: Even journalism’s much-needed victory comes with a caveat
An offseason of competent roster building by general manager John Spytek and culture setting by new coach Klint Kubiak has created an optimistic outlook for the Las VegasRaiders’ future.
The present isn’t so bad, either.
This has been a great start to the season for the Raiders, who have outperformed expectations in winning their first two games.
They are 2-0 with a reasonably winnable game on tap on Sunday in New Orleans and have started to create a buzz among the fanbase.
Yet the objective of this being a foundation-building year for the Raiders has not and should not change.
The goal always has been for 2026 to be a season to put the pieces in place to create a base from which to launch what the organization hopes will be a sustainable long-term period of success.
That’s not something that happens overnight, especially when the past two decades have been marked by failure.
The hot start has some starving fans starting to fantasize about fast-forwarding the process. That maybe the rebuild will bear fruit ahead of the anticipated harvest date.
That’s fine. It’s OK to dream and exercise unbridled optimism.
But the reality is that the outlook hasn’t changed much, especially since the Dolphins and Chargers might end up being the league’s last two winless teams.
The Raiders entered the offseason with a projected win total of 5.5 at most sportsbooks, a number that ticked up to 6 or 6.5 with some of the moves made to build the roster.
Last week, Boomer’s Sportsbook put the number back on the board at 7.5. That means the Raiders, despite a 2-0 start, still are projected to finish below .500.
Oddsmakers expected the Raiders to go 1-1 in those games, so that one game ahead of schedule is all the Raiders are being given credit for in the new number. The projection going forward this season is not significantly different than it was two weeks ago, according to the bookmakers.
And their playoff odds still hover around 20 percent in most simulators.
None of this is to disparage what the Raiders have done. That sentence is written knowing that’s what fans will take from this and how many emails will be received today claiming the opposite is what is being written here.
Still, Raiders fans should be thrilled about what’s happening. Because this is a reminder of what this year was about. It is still possible this team finishes below .500.
And that would not be a failure, even if it might feel like it to fans who have been thrilled with this start. Because it looks like the Raiders are ahead of schedule regardless of what the record says at the end of the year.
Kubiak has them organized and has been excellent as a playcaller despite adding the duties of a head coach. (And he’s certain to learn from the missed opportunity to challenge the fumble call last week that should have been an incomplete pass.)
His team also looks organized and cohesive, a vast improvement.
Spytek appears to have found young gems in free agency and the draft now that he has more control over the roster.
Everything is coming along about as well as the organization could have hoped. At some point, they will add top draft pick Fernando Mendoza to the mix, and he will have the pieces in place to succeed. At that point, the franchise’s future comes down to whether he can play.
But the plan to build a situation in which he can succeed appears to be working. One more offseason to build the receiving corps, add to the offensive line and add more young playmakers up front on defense, and this team should be able to compete for a long time.
And maybe it catches lightning in a bottle this year. That would be icing on the cake.
Enjoy the ride. But don’t lose sight of what the mission has been for this year and look it as a failure if they fall short of the playoffs.
That was never the expectation and is still a long shot.