Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek may have just made a guarantee involving next year’s draft
The Las Vegas Raiders nailed the draft process this season, but the GM thinks they will do even better next year.
The Las Vegas Raiders are in a unique position. They just nailed the offseason—free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft. However, they were one of the worst teams in the league last year, if not the worst.
Yet they have an aura about them that suggests they’re headed in a direction we haven’t seen in years. They hired the right coach and drafted an amazing draft class. And in that draft class, the Raiders got their franchise quarterback and a ton of guys who can be difference makers. They followed their process correctly. And, just think, they did that in the first year of this new regime. What could happen in Year 2?
GM John Spytek talks NFL Draft process
“We certainly spent a lot of time unpacking the draft,” general manager John Spytek said on the Media Day Show. “There’s still a lot to be found out about the guy we selected. But I was happy with our approach. We merged well with Klint, and we had that out in front of us. We are going to make sure next year’s process and draft are even better than what we just did.”
When Spytek says the process was different, he means the way they approached things leading up to draft night. You can just look at the paper and see that this class can be better than last year’s, even without having seen it play yet. Of course, that could be wrong, but the Raiders’ work in getting great football players was obvious. Their scouting process for these guys was better.
And maybe it was better, because that was the only direction they could go. Last year was bad, and you can tell some of their processes were flawed because it felt like Pete Carroll had his fingerprints all over the class much more than Spytek did. This time felt more like a collaboration between Spytek and Klint Kubiak. And now Spytek is practically guaranteeing that their process will be even better for next season. That has to get this fan base excited.