The Kansas City Chiefs won yet another AFC West division title in 2024. The Los Angeles Chargers won 11 games and earned the 5th seed in the AFC playoffs. The Denver Broncos won 10 games and earned the 7th seed in the AFC playoffs. The Las Vegas Raiders?
Well, the Raiders just fired head coach Antonio Pierce. The Raiders don't have a settled quarterback situation for the foreseeable future. The Raiders "won" their way out of the #1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
This is shaping up to be a pivotal offseason for AFC West teams, and everyone is already laughing at the Las Vegas Raiders.
Raiders making major changes at the worst possible time
The Las Vegas Raiders are currently slated to pick 6th overall in the 2025 NFL Draft after previously holding the #1 overall pick. Even if the Raiders finished the year with the worst record in the NFL, who would they be taking as their franchise quarterback of the future? There doesn't seem to be anyone in the class at this point who is a consensus QB1 type, and certainly nothing like we saw last year in which the draft featured three players who could have gone #1 overall in a given year in Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye.
This year's class is all about beauty being in the eye of the beholder and some people "like" Miami's Cam Ward, but nobody seems to "love" him at this point. Shedeur Sanders took so many sacks at the college level and his stock seems to be falling day by day. Picking 6th overall, are the Raiders even going to be able to get one of the QBs?
If you look at the NFL free agent and trade market at QB, who are the best guys available this offseason? Justin Fields? Kirk Cousins potentially? Russell Wilson?
The Raiders are hiring a head coach in a cycle that seems terrible with the candidates that are currently available. Bad enough that reports have already surfaced that Tom Brady has reached out to Bill Belichick about what it would take to get him to leave his new gig at North Carolina and come to Vegas.
Tom's going to have to figure out how to keep things under wraps a bit better, because if there's an inkling of truth to that rumor, then it's clear that the Raiders fired Antonio Pierce without being overwhelmed by the candidates in the already-available pool of coaches.
And remember, they hired Antonio Pierce in the first place because they were bullied into it by players on the roster, one of which demanded to be traded during the season.
So, every other team in the AFC West has stability in the head coach department. Every other AFC West team has a franchise QB. Every other AFC West team made the playoffs this year. What do the Raiders have going for them? They are facing a brutal offseason (and maybe they find the missing pieces) and possibly already a brutal 2025 season in general.