The Raiders Will be Much More Entertaining This Season

Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz of USA TODAY Sports recently ranked every team in the league based on how entertaining he thinks teams will be this upcoming season.

He believes the Raiders are the 24th-most entertaining teams in the league heading into the 2025 season.

"The Silver and Black began last season as one of the league's most unwatchable outfits. After dumping Davante Adams and trying out three uninspiring starting quarterbacks, the Raiders ended the campaign as essentially irrelevant –Brock Bowers' historic debut notwithstanding," Middlehurst-Schwartz said.

"Geno Smith, Pete Carroll and Ashton Jeanty give the franchise one of its first glimmers of hope since the team arrived in Las Vegas five years ago, but the early portion of the climb back to functionality might not be particularly captivating."

Following Organized Team Activities, Raiders Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly noted what makes Jeanty unique.

"Ashton is as talented at back as a young guy coming in the league that I've seen. He's really special. His ability to sustain runs after contact, his contact balances is kind of a really rare quality. He's got a low center of gravity, and I think it's tough to get him down and normally the first guy doesn't," Kelly said.

"And you look at all of the tape of his games last year, and it didn't matter who he played, because they obviously played in the Mountain West, but when he played Oregon and he played Penn State, you look at how he performed in those games. And I think sometimes you get caught up in just looking at the numbers, but I think it was like 35 missed tackles he created in the Penn State game."

While only so much can be gathered from offseason programs, Kelly notes Jeanty was well prepared coming into the league.

"So, excited to see him. It's different, obviously as we know during OTAs, because it's not tackle. We're not taking guys to the ground. I don't think he'll get tackled till we get to our first preseason game, but I'm really excited. The one thing about him is he's a really quick learner. He also had experience there with Dirk Koetter, was his offensive coordinator in his last year," Kelly said.

"Dirk has been a long time coach in this league, been a head coach in this league, and is a really, really good football guy. So [Jeanty] came in with a good basis and understanding. And so, he's done a great job, really, really excited to work with him. I know everybody in the offensive staff was excited when Spy [John Spytek] made that selection."

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