Plenty went wrong for the Las Vegas Raiders last season. Their star wide receiver undermined their head coach in the preseason. They suffered an unusual amount of injuries to critical players on the team, all while enduring a 10-game losing streak.
The Raiders entered last season with one of the worst quarterback situations and overall rosters in the National Football League. Even the Raiders' front office understood their roster needed work, especially with a first-time head coach leading the way.
Las Vegas entered last season with fair and realistic expectations. Most figured the Raiders would be a .500 team at best. Considering their quarterback situation and the division they play in, few expected the Raiders to make the playoffs.
Still, the Raiders managed to be worse than even their biggest doubters could have ever guessed. While injuries and poor coaching led to Las Vegas' demise, the losing was not necessarily the worst part of last season. It was the fact that there were times the Raiders were not competitive.
There was the 31-0 run the Denver Broncos went on, sparked by a Gardner Minshew interception returned for a touchdown after the Raiders had jumped out to an early lead. There was the blowout loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
There was also the embarrassing home opener against the winless Carolina Panthers, who were starting their backup quarterback for the first time. The Raiders entered the fourth quarter of that game down by 20 points, the week after beating the Baltimore Ravens on the road.
While overall they were competitive, they had more than a few moments when they were not. John Spytek noted that a player's competitive drive is undoubtedly something he searches for as he builds out the roster.
"Just the competitiveness that’s the person, but when I think about the kind of player that we need to bring into this program to give to the coaches, and what I've seen from coach and his staff already, there needs to be a passion and a competitive drive that is going to be paramount to people's success in this. And if they don't have it, then they won't last here very long in my opinion, from what I've seen and what I know," Spytek said.
"We have to demand that, because otherwise we're not doing our jobs as scouts and as a personnel department very well, because we're setting them up for failure. Because I don't think it's fair to ask coach and all the staff to try to pull the competitiveness out of them every day. The players have to be willing to give it, and then it can be exponentially grown over time," Spytek said.
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