The Las Vegas Raiders are a much better team in 2025 than they were in 2024, and they haven't even played a game yet, let alone, start training camp. Both sides of the ball have seen major improvements in the areas that needed to be improved, besides a few positions here and there like linebacker.
But, there is still a lot to prove. And, when you think about it -- of course, they are already better, they only won four games last year, and it's pretty hard to get worse than that. But, on paper, the roster is definitely better, and that's all you could have asked for out of this new regime, especially out of a first-year general manager in John Spytek, who was the assistant general manager for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season.
But I'm not sure anyone expected the Raiders to have the offensive weapons around Geno Smith that they now have, especially with Ashton Jeanty, one of the greatest college running backs we have ever seen.
The moves they have made, including drafting Jeanty, have players already on the team asking how the rest of the league is going to play defense.
"Those defenses are about to play us a little differently this year. He's [rookie running back Ashton Jeanty] a generational talent. He's a dog, he might be Beast Mode 2.0."
The Raiders will have a much better offense in 2025 than they did last year, and while most of that will be because of former Seattle Seahawks QB Geno Smith, the second most responsible player for the improvement will be Jeanty.
With one of the worst run games in recent memory coming from the Raiders in 2024, adding a guy like Jeanty to what was a terrible running back room, and keeping some continuity on the offensive line should only make that area of their offense better.
Then, adding in the receivers and offensive linemen they have drafted will only help, too. But, they have a long way to go before they can start asking how defenses are going to guard them.
