Where are the Raiders going?

By Trevor Speetzen December 23, 2024 05:05

Photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

In 2020, the Raiders added another chapter to their historic book when they made the move from Oakland to Las Vegas. Despite high expectations, the Raiders experienced much turmoil the year in 2021.

Head coach Jon Gruden was fired after an email scandal and star wideout Henry Ruggs was arrested and jailed after he was involved in a fatal DUI crash.

Despite this, quarterback Derek Carr was able to lead the Raiders to the playoffs with a 10-7 record before eventually losing in the wild card round to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Since that playoff appearance in 2021, the Las Vegas Raiders have been one of the NFL’s biggest laughing stocks. Las Vegas has yet to reach the playoffs, failed to have a winning season and have had at least two seasons with at least 10 losses.

In 2022, Josh McDaniels was hired as the team’s new head coach and the team immediately fell off. The Raiders finished the year 6-11 and Derek Carr was let go by the team after nine seasons together.

Entering 2023, the team had high expectations after signing Jimmy Garappolo from the San Francisco 49ers. While the team improved to 8-9, they still had a litany of problems over the course of the year.

Garappolo was eventually benched for his poor play; in six starts he went 3-3 with seven touchdowns, nine interceptions and a qb rating of 77.7. Then, coach McDaniels was fired by the team after a 3-5 start.

For the remainder of 2023, Aidan O’Connell took over starting quarterback duties and Antonio Pierce took over head coaching duties. Under Pierce, the Raiders went 5-4 and Pierce was officially given the head coaching duties for the 2024 season.

The move to keep Pierce as the team’s head coach was praised by fans and even Raiders’ players. Star edge rusher Maxx Crosby even threatened to leave the team if Pierce didn’t return as the team’s head coach.

With Pierce returning and high team morale, the Raiders once again had high expectations entering 2024. However, entering the year it was unclear who was going to be the Raiders starting quarterback.

Garappolo was released by the team and they acquired Gardner Minshew during the offseason. Las Vegas failed to sign any other quarterback and didn’t draft one quarterback in the highly-touted 2024 QB draft class.

Once again, 2024 proved not to be the year for the Raiders. Minshew struggled as the team’s starter and was eventually replaced by O’Connell. Minshew eventually came back but then suffered a season-ending collarbone injury.

So far, Las Vegas has only won two games this season and have already lost more than 10 games. So where is this team going?

Will 2025 be a rebuild year or will they have high expectations once more? Will they pick up another quarterback or stick with Minshew and O’Connell? Will they move on from Pierce or retain him for another year?

The Raiders have a lot of questions that need to be answered as the team seems to be swimming up creek without a paddle as the 2025 offseason approaches.