Raiders' Rebuild Leaves Everything Riding on Fernando Mendoza's Ceiling

The biggest problem is the Raiders’ overall roster, where Las Vegas ranked 31st. Only the Dolphins have a worse roster excluding the quarterbacks. It is easy to see why.

Look across the Raiders defense and you can find one star player: Maxx Crosby. But this ranking is for the future. Crosby will be 30 when the 2027 season comes around and will likely be exiting his prime.

The rest of the defense is lacking talent. The Raiders added veterans like Kwity Paye, Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker and Taron Johnson this offseason. But none of those four have ever even made a Pro Bowl.

The Raiders need their youth to step up. Young guys like Treydan Stukes, Hezekiah Masses, Jermod McCoy and Tonka Hemingway will be keys to making the roster better than 31st in the future.

The offense is in a better spot with Brock Bowers, Tyler Linderbaum and Ashton Jeanty. But three good players at tight end, running back and center will not make up for the rest of the roster.

Klint Kubiak, John Spytek face pressure

The Raiders also graded out poorly with their head coaching and front office. Las Vegas ranked 25th and 21st, respectively, in those two categories.

Klint Kubiak is a first-year head coach without much background to project. He led Seattle’s offense last season on the way to a Super Bowl, but he has also only been an offensive coordinator for three seasons at three different stops.

General manager John Spytek oversaw a horrible 2025 offseason, where the Raiders got basically everything wrong. 2026 looks better so far, but the Raiders haven’t played any games to actually test out their new acquisitions.

If the Raiders’ rebuild is going to go anywhere, both Kubiak and Spytek will have to outperform ESPN’s rankings.

Fernando Mendoza gives Raiders rebuild hope

The Raiders are trying to be good in the 2027-2029 seasons. This upcoming year is the start of a rebuild. Being ranked in the bottom half of the league for those future seasons makes the rebuild feel pointless.

But there is certainly reason to be optimistic. Las Vegas had the top pick in the draft and took their future franchise quarterback in Fernando Mendoza. While it is hard to project superstardom onto a player that hasn’t even seen the field in a regular season game, Mendoza has that potential.

He won a national title and the Heisman Trophy at Indiana last season. He helped bring one of the country’s worst football programs to life. If he can do anything similar with the Raiders, the next few years will be filled with much more success.

But that is part of the problem for the Raiders. Mendoza has to be awesome. If he isn’t, there are not enough positives around this organization to become a contender.