Everything to know about the Las Vegas Raiders before the 2024 season

Can head coach Antonio Pierce right the ship for the Las Vegas Raiders?

The Raiders are entering their fifth season in Las Vegas this fall, and will be led by their third head coach (Antonio Pierce) in that time. They’ve lost more games than they’ve won in that time, but they’re ready to try to run the gauntlet again. With less than a month until the start of the NFL season, we’re breaking down the biggest storylines around the Las Vegas Raiders.

The Offense

The Raiders weren’t exactly bad on offense last year, but nowhere near explosive enough to compete with the offensive juggernauts of the AFC. They still might not be in the top tier, but we could see some improvements.

The Quarterbacks

Fourth-round rookie Aidan O’Connell of Purdue started 10 games under center last year and played relatively clean football, tossing a dozen touchdowns against seven interceptions. But the Raiders leaned heavily on Josh Jacobs in the run game; this year, Jacobs is gone, and he’ll need to do more for the offense to survive. 

While it does seem to be O’Connell’s job to lose, the Raiders brought in an insurance policy in the form of Gardner Minshew, who filled in for an injured Anthony Richardson on the Indianapolis Colts last season. Minshew has never looked spectacular, but he did notch his first winning record as a starter last year. 

Nobody will confuse either of these options for Patrick Mahomes or Justin Herbert, but development from O’Connell would go a long way toward improving on last year’s 8-9 record. If neither quarterback works out, the Raiders might be due for more disappointment.

The Playmakers

The good news is that O’Connell still has one of the league’s better wide receivers to throw to in Davante Adams. The bad news is that behind Adams, the receiver room looks uninspiring. Players like Jakobi Meyers and Michael Mayer are fine, but won’t inspire enough fear into the heart of opposing secondaries to draw coverage away from Adams.

The Raiders did use their first-round pick of the 2024 NFL Draft on tight end Brock Bowers of Georgia, who operates more like a slot receiver. Tight ends are notorious for slow development in the NFL, but Bowers’s versatility means he could hit the ground running. If he does, he could prove to be exactly the kind of extra weapon O’Connell needs.

If the receiving corps is uninspiring, though, the backfield is downright worrying. With Josh Jacobs moving on in free agency, the depth chart is thin. Zamir White projects to be the starter, but he has a limited body of work so far. Through two seasons, he has four career starts and as many fumbles as touchdowns (one each). Maybe that means he’ll have fresh legs for a heavy workload and silence the doubters, but it’s just as likely a sign that his coaches have never trusted him to be productive. Sixth-round rookie Dylan Laube of New Hampshire could spell White as a change-of-pace back, but he’s obviously even more of an unknown. Even with improved run blocking, the Raiders might not want to rely on the run game as much as they did last year.

The O-Line

For all its recent struggles, the offensive line does appear to be on the upswing. Kolton Miller has quietly developed into a great left tackle to anchor the line, and right tackle Thayer Munford and center Andre James showed lots of promise last year. Add in rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson of Oregon at guard, and the Raiders are one piece away from having one of the best blocking units in the league.

The Defense

For all the potential woes of the Raiders offense, this is not a defense to sleep on. Last year, they boasted a great pass rush and solid run defense, but struggled in coverage. Development of younger players, along with some offseason tweaks, could make this a force to be reckoned with, even against a team like the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs.

The D-Line

Edge defender Maxx Crosby gives the Vegas defense a great starting point. He racked up 15 sacks last year and led the league in solo tackles. Now, the Raiders are turning a strength into a superpower by adding three former Miami Dolphins to the defensive line, including Christian Wilkins, one of the most coveted free agents of the year. Having Crosby and Wilkins on the same team should be enough to make this a top-10 defensive line.

Last year’s first-round rookie, Tyree Wilson, struggled mightily in pretty much every aspect of the game. Any sign of life from Wilson would go a long way toward making this the best defense in the NFL.

The Secondary

Cornerback Jack Jones and Tre’von Moehrig may not be superstars, but they do make for a cogent coverage unit. Nate Hobbs looked phenomenal in 2021, but has regressed mightily since being moved from the slot to outside corner. The Raiders spent a lot of mid-to-late-round picks on defensive backs in this year’s draft, and it’s possible that one of them (like fourth-rounder Decamerion Richardson of Mississippi State) can take over on the outside opposite Jones, allowing Hobbs a chance to return to his former greatness in the slot.

We’ll still likely see these players get torched by Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert from time to time, but there’s reason to think we’ll see improvements from last year.

The Competition

The AFC West might not look quite as fearsome as it has in recent years, but it still features two of the best quarterbacks in the league and head coaches with a combined four Super Bowl rings and seven conference championships. 

Denver Broncos

The Broncos moved on from a disastrous stint with Russell Wilson at quarterback and drafted Bo Nix of Oregon to take the reins. Nix wasn’t widely seen as a top-tier prospect coming out of college, but head coach Sean Payton has a long track record of getting the most out of his quarterbacks. Even still, this is a team at the beginning of a rebuild. They shouldn’t be a serious threat this year.

Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers are in the middle of a reset of their own, bringing in head coach Jim Harbaugh fresh off a national championship with the University of Michigan. Harbaugh likes a run-heavy approach to the offense, but he and offensive coordinator Greg Roman (who has previously worked with Colin Kaepernick and Lamar Jackson) will likely find creative new ways to get the most out of quarterback Justin Herbert. 

The Chargers moved on from a lot of talented players on offense this year, including wide receiver Keenan Allen and running back Austin Ekeler, but they’ve beefed up their offensive line with first-round pick Joe Alt, and they’ve brought in a couple of Roman’s old running backs from his Baltimore days: Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins.

Harbaugh’s Michigan defense was one of the best in the college ranks, and his schemes translate well to the NFL. Their roster has quite a few holes, but coaching will likely elevate them to a decent floor.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs had a bad year by their own high standards, and still walked away as Super Bowl champions. Now, they’re reloading at wide receiver with free agent Marquise Brown and first-round draft pick Xavier Worthy of Oregon, who just recorded the fastest 40-yard dash time in NFL Combine history. What is there to say? As long as Patrick Mahomes is under center, the Chiefs will be the Raiders’ biggest obstacle.

Overall Outlook

Sportsbooks are putting the over/under of  Raiders wins at 6.5. For context, that’s the same line they faced last year, and they ultimately finished with an 8-9 record. There are good things to be said about the roster, but it’s still a deeply flawed team. 

If the defense takes the step forward that it should and Aidan O’Connell proves he can be a full-time starter at quarterback, the Raiders could sneak into the playoffs and call that a huge win. If O’Connell falters and Gardner Minshew can’t pick up the slack, this might be a team that only wins four or five games.

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