The Las Vegas Raiders have wrapped up the OTA part of the 2025 NFL offseason and are looking forward to minicamp next week and training camp. Naturally, who makes the 53-man roster is a definite question surrounding the franchise.
Our latest Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast episode features part one of our predicted 53-man roster of the Raider Nation in the first year of the Pete Carroll regime.
Projecting the Las Vegas Raiders' 2025 53-Man Roster
# Position Name
QB GENO SMITH
2. QB Aidan O’Connell
3. QB Cam Miller (R)
4. RB ASHTON JEANTY (R)
5. RB Raheem Mostert
6. RB Sincere McCormick
7. RB Zamir White
8. WR Tommy Mellott (R)
9. WR JAKOBI MEYERS
10. WR DONT’E THORNTON (R)
11. WR JACK BECH (R)
12. WR Tre Tucker
13. T Thayer Munford
14. T CHARLES GRANT (R)
15. T KOLTON MILLER
16. T DELMAR DJ GLAZE
17. IOL JACKSON POWERS-JOHNSON
18. G ALEX CAPPA
19. IOL CALEB ROGERS (R)
20. G Jordan Meredith
21. IOL Dylan Parham
22. TE BROCK BOWERS
23. TE Michael Mayer
24. TE Ian Thomas OR Justin Shorter OR Qadir Ismail
The loss of captain and middle linebacker Robert Spillane in free agency was brutal for the Silver and Black. GM John Spytek was able to sign versatile and talented veteran linebacker Elandon Roberts from the Pittsburgh Steelers, which was a balm on that wound.
After a recent OTA practice, Roberts spoke about what he is noticing now that he has put on the storied helmet of the Las Vegas Raiders.
You can read a partial transcript of all he said below.
MIKE Linebacker Elandon Roberts
Q: Patrick Graham was just saying that even though he hasn't coached you before that it seems like you're on the same wavelength, that you kind of know what each other's thinking without talking. What ways have you seen that come across?
Roberts: "It's kind of crazy, it's like growing up in the same household but in a different generation, but the household didn't change, it's kind of the same. So, like when he talks, like I'm just kind of zoned in on it. I've spent a lot of time with PG [Patrick Graham] and stuff like that. We only get a certain amount of time in the building, and shoot, I'm trying to pull up on PG at his house and everything like, 'Hey, let's talk a little ball,' because we only get so much time in the building. But just knowing how PG came about and his pedigree and his philosophy behind the game, I just know like it's never moment I can't text him or pull up on him or just ask him, 'Man, let's talk ball,' because I know, man. I'm telling you, PG is the type of guy he wakes up in the morning, he thinks about football. He can be eating something, he's thinking about football. He can be watching the UFL, he can be watching them play and just start calling plays because he's that locked in. Man, he's a great coach and probably an even better person, man. He's a man of integrity, but at the same time when it comes to this football, he's not cheating the process and stuff like that. I love just being around that, and like I said, just knowing where he started, I can kind of talk his language and feel where he's coming from with certain things. I can kind of beat him to the punch on certain things, not trying to, but I'm just like, 'Would you like to do this?' Or, 'If we see this, I know you called this one, would you like to get into that' type stuff and he said, 'Nah, hold off on it right now, it may be too much,' and I'm like, 'okay,' but he knows like I'm seeing where he's going with it just from us kind of being in the same system and similarities. Obviously, he's created his own type of schematics around defense, but he's still pulling from the same type of trees, and he's just blending them all together."
Q: At this stage of your career, why is it important for you to take it that extra level where you want to pull up, like you said, at his house to talk football. Why at this stage of your career are you still invested that deeply?
Roberts: "Because every day matters. I ain't getting no younger. I might be out there moving like I'm young, but I ain't getting no younger. And the older you get, the more you start appreciating that day in and day out, because you know I can't get that time back and stuff like that. I'm not in the business of saying, 'If I would have did this, or 'If I would have did that.' I'm in the business of now, no matter what it takes. And one thing I do know about leadership just coming up as a young, leadership is lonely, I promise. But at the end of the day, the loneliness ends when you holding that Lombardi at the end of the day, because everybody you push, including yourself, you strained your family, you strained your coaches, you just always want the extra just to make sure. And people might get tired of you, but one thing I know, when you holding that Lombardi, they're going to come up to you and say, 'I appreciate that,' and that all I want. That's all I want. I don't want any fame, I don't want none of that. I want all my teammates to be able to feel that. I want Vegas to be able to feel that, and it starts in practice. And yeah, we get up here and we talk about it with y'all, but we've got to bring it every day to that practice field, and I feel like that's what Pete [Carroll] is doing for us."
Q: You talk so highly of Patrick Graham. I feel like you missed him by one year in New England, one year in Miami. Is it almost fate that brought you together?
Roberts: "Man, if I didn't want to get fined, I would tell y'all how I really feel. He was running from me. I get out here and said, 'It's about time. What's up man?'
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