There is no trophy for winning the offseason.
It’s probably not one most general managers would want anyway because it probably means there was a great deal of work to do in the first place.
That was certainly the case for general manager John Spytek, who knew a dramatic overhaul was necessary after watching the Las Vegas Raiders go 3-14 in his first season on the job.
He moved on from an aging coach in Pete Carroll after one year and replaced him with one of the hottest names on the market in Klint Kubiak. Spytek also used the first pick in the NFL draft to take what he and the organization hopes is a generational-type talent in quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
He landed a highly-regarded haul in free agency and even navigated one of the most bizarre scenarios in recent league history when the Baltimore Ravens canceled a proposed trade of star defensive end Maxx Crosby for a pair of first-round picks.
Several national pundits have declared the Raiders the most improved team since the end of the 2025 season.
It would be easy to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner on the third floor of the team facility in Henderson and enjoy a vacation next month between minicamp and the start of training camp.
But that’s not how Spytek operates.
“I think we’re building, but I don’t think in the NFL that process ever stops,” Spytek said in assessing where the team is after two drafts and a year of churning the roster. “Obviously, getting Fernando, who we need to help develop into a great, franchise-level quarterback, is a big add. Every franchise is looking for that. But I think we’re all excited about the young talent in the building. Brock Bowers. Ashton Jeanty. We’ve still got Maxx. We added some great linebackers.
“But to me, if you think you’ve reached the finish line or even that you’re on your way, I think you’re doing it wrong.”
Spytek has been doing plenty right lately, but his first year on the job was a difficult one.
“I never want to go through that again, ever,” he said of finishing tied for the worst record in the league and picking No. 1 overall. “But, I’m grateful for the things that we learned along the way.”
Spytek sat down recently with the Review-Journal in a rare down moment at the team facility to discuss in depth last season, his lessons learned and his thoughts and expectations going forward.
Moving forward
Spytek could very easily distance himself from the 2025 season, even though he was the general manager who oversaw the disaster.
Instead, he owns it.
“I think that would be a cop-out,” Spytek said of any attempt to call this his first full offseason. “I think last year it was drinking from the firehose, but that’s the job. You try to learn and evaluate as fast and as well as you can. I think this is Year 2, and you have to be mindful of the things we did well and what we didn’t do well last season. You have to have self-awareness and make some corrections off of that.
“But our 3-14 record, we earned that last year. I think there’s a lot of things that I have to do better and a lot of things the organization has to do better. Then, the players need to play.”
Sure, but the obvious excuses are there even if he won’t make them.
He was hired at 44 years old and immediately paired with Carroll, who turned 74 last season, the oldest coach in league history.
While Spytek was aware how much work had to be done on the roster and how long that process would take, Carroll didn’t have that kind of time. He wanted to be competitive immediately and influenced some moves to help expedite that process after proclaiming to the world that he didn’t know anything else but how to win at least 10 games every year.
Spytek, a Wisconsin native who was a teammate of minority owner Tom Brady at Michigan, couldn’t be blamed for throwing Carroll under the bus. Instead, he would rather search for the lessons in the failures.
“I’m more focused on where we’re at now and where we’re going,” he said. “I think to that point, I learned a lot about being a GM and all the things that get thrown at you and trying to solve problems every day that you can’t predict.”
Spytek specifically cited the Christian Wilkins situation as just one example. He and Carroll believed they were taking over a team that was pairing Crosby with a star defensive tackle in Wilkins only to very quickly learn the injury he suffered in 2024 hadn’t healed, a mess that was only compounded by reports of a bizarre locker room situation that led to his release and an extended grievance that still hasn’t been settled.
“That just wasn’t our reality,” he said of having a healthy Wilkins on the team. “So you just learn in those spaces to solve the problem the best you can. And even the great teams I’ve been a part of, it never goes the way you think it’s going to go.”
Not much did last year, but Spytek is taking a fairly analytical approach to it all.
He said it would have been a much more challenging year if he obsessed over everything that went wrong and all the losses.
“But that’s just not my psyche,” he said. “We were more focused on being realistic with what we did right and then being self-critical about what we did wrong. If you don’t do that, I think you miss opportunities to really grow.
“Any adversity in life, I think we all would agree it sucks going through it, but there’s that’s where the growth is and that’s where if you can truly have an honest conversation with yourself, you can learn a lot from it.
“Now I’m all about 2026 and going forward.”
That was helped out by completing his staff with a front office he now believes is well-equipped to make efficient and effective decisions through a collaborative process where dissent is welcome and discussion encouraged.
Spytek was also able to have a much bigger role in the coaching hire and now has a staff in place with a shared vision of the future, even if he won’t be the one to say that.
It has all led to a successful offseason, beginning with the free-agency class.
Targets acquired
While the media is often wrong about what teams plan to do in the offseason, the Raiders priorities were predicted by just about everyone.
Mendoza was going to be the top pick in the draft from the moment he went soaring into the end zone in the national championship game on the now-iconic quarterback keeper. Once the Raiders hired Kubiak, star center Tyler Linderbaum was the obvious choice as a prototypical style fit for the system on a team desperate for help up front.
Spytek pulled off both moves.
But it wasn’t the actual acquisitions that should have Raiders fans putting their trust in his ability to run the team going forward. It was how it all happened.
Spytek’s personnel department communicated with Kubiak’s coaching staff and confirmed that Linderbaum was the ideal fit as a player, leader and human.
They relied on his film, first and foremost, but also went back to their scouting of him when evaluating the 2022 draft class. Then they talked to players, coaches and personnel who had been around him throughout his career and the evaluation started to come into focus.
“I have a big belief that it starts up front and in talking to Klint and getting to know his staff, the true value of a high-end center in this offense,” Spytek said. “It was high character, work ethic, highly-competitive. Then the film is what it is, which we thought was very good, obviously. It was a unique opportunity because that guy doesn’t always become available at the end of his rookie contract, at least for another year, and we just tried to evaluate what he would do for the Raiders. And obviously we were convicted in it. So I think it’s fair to say he was the No. 1 target in free agency for us.
“And I think the (record-setting) contract speaks that in volumes.”
It was a similar process with Mendoza.
Spytek said the organization made sure not to start the evaluation with the end in mind. The Raiders wanted to be thorough and not miss anything.
He believes they were able to do that even though the entire world believed it was a slam dunk from the beginning.
“I would never classify it as easy. I think it was a great, thorough, well thought-out process,” he said. “And sure, it ended in the spot where everybody expected it to end. But it’s because of who he is as a person and as a competitor and as a football lover that gave us a convicted sense of calm as we went through it. That made it so the decision we made at the end, we were able to make with a lot of confidence.”
While those were the most high-profile moves of the offseason, it’s the less glitzy moves that will really determine whether the Raiders are finally building a winning foundation.
But Spytek believes in the people in the building and the process they have in place. That was evident when the moment actually came to start free agency with Linderbaum as the first of many signings.
“When the bell drops and you’re set to make Tyler Linderbaum the highest-paid interior offensive lineman in NFL history, I think it was a pretty calm room where we were able to say, ‘Hey, we’re convicted in this.’ And whatever people on the outside might think or say or do about it, it’s not really a factor to us. We believe in the scouting process and the plan we put in place, and now is not the time to be hesitant,’” he said. “And I don’t think we were. And then it just kind of continued from there.”
Even after they had invested in all those free agents and then found out they were getting Crosby and his approximately $30 million salary back on the books. Spytek said they were able to look at the deals they had in place and figure out how best to deal with the situation.
“I think in the NFL you almost expect the unexpected,” he said. “There’s very little I think that would surprise or shock me at this point in my career.
“But I’m proud of our group for having the mindset of, ‘OK, we’ll just deal with it as it comes and I think we’re very grateful to the ownership group because that’s a massive contract to have as part of it. It’s $30 million this year. But there was never a conversation about, ‘Well then cut this guy or renege on this deal,’ that’s just not the way that we’re going to operate. So to the outside world it might seem like a tall tale, but honestly, I feel like if you ask anybody on the third floor or the coaching staff or the personnel side, like, we just kind of took it in stride. Did it change a little of what we did after that? Well, we had to be a little bit more mindful of our cap and cash situation with that, so maybe on Day 2 and 3, it prohibited some things. But the bulk of our work was already done.”
It was actually a microcosm for how all of free agency went for the Raiders, who were not only armed with cap space but also the resources from ownership to invest so heavily.
While free agency is never going to go exactly as planned with some targets drawing better offers elsewhere or simply opting to stay with their previous team, Spytek’s self-assessment of that period was that the organization had pretty accurate evaluations on the available players and what their values would be on the market.
He also learned something that will be valuable in the future.
“The cool thing too was when we started to feel that people really wanted to come here,” he said. “I think that’s always a cool thing, where if you’re an organization, people are calling you too and there’s a synergy there with people that also have a chance to go anywhere they want, but they’re interested in the opportunity that we’re presenting them. And obviously the contract matters a lot. But some of those guys, I’m pretty confident, had other really good opportunities elsewhere for good contracts. And they chose to come here.
“You can’t plan for that, but we did kind of realize it in real time, too.”
Have they done enough?
Despite all the improvements, the Raiders are still projected by sportsbooks to be one of the worst teams in the league. While the foundation appears a solid one from which to build a future contender, there is also some pressure to start seeing results on the field.
“We’re all hyper-competitive people and nothing would make me happier than to win 17 games next year,” he said. “But, we’re more focused on building it the right way. So when we do have the success, when we show the progress this year and the results come with it on the field, that we can keep it there too. That’s the ultimate challenge. But we’re going to go try to win as many games as we can this year, too.”
To that end, the Raiders didn’t just add talent in free agency. They added mostly younger players in their mid-20s fresh off rookie deals who are still coming into their prime.
“That gives us a chance to build that foundation the right way this year to be competitive and have those guys be a part of it going forward,” he said. “Then just continue to add.”
This roster should at least be competitive, which would be a massive improvement.
Spytek said that’s the part that’s difficult to judge, especially when the players are only going through drills in shorts and baseball hats this time of year.
“I’m confident in the competitor and the person that we’ve added through free agency and the draft,” he said. “They still have got to go do it. We’ve got a big training camp in front of us and we’re learning a totally new offensive, defensive and special teams scheme. So that’s going to be a big part of it, too. But I’m encouraged with the work ethic. The attendance so far in our offseason program has been outstanding.
“I’m not into the prediction market. It’s never been what I think I’m the best at. But I’m excited about the guys here and the way they work and the way they’re working together.”
What’s next?
If there is no award for winning the draft or free agency, there are even less accolades for winning the summer in the NFL.
It’s the only part of the calendar that even resembles a down period in any way. After minicamp early next month, the players will be out of the building for nearly six weeks until training camp starts in late July.
Don’t expect to see Spytek on the beach for too long.
He knows the opportunities to improve the roster always exist. There are still free agents available and even more players could hit the market after June 1.
“Plus, you never know if there’s trade offers that come your way,” he said. “And then the prep for the 2027 draft will start here in a couple weeks. The guys upstairs are already watching those guys. Then we’ll evaluate our guys on the team over the next couple of weeks as best we can in shorts and helmets.
“Every day I come in here, I just think about, ‘How can we make the Raiders better?’ You never know what’s going to come up. Some days you walk in and you can’t anticipate what’s going to happen, but we’ll take it as it comes.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
