Inside the Raiders: Explaining 2025 Collapse – and Why There's Hope for 2026

HENDERSON, Nev. - The story of the 2025 Raiders is one of dysfunction, and when it was being written, it was sad to watch.

But as happens so much in life, the journey we find ourselves on today can turn on a dime, change direction, and, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, new life springs up where moments before death lay.

The First Critical Phone Call

The date was Dec. 15, 2025, and the time was 4:12 a.m. I remember that because phone calls that early in the morning are not usually very good, and I was sitting at my desk writing.

I had caught the last flight out of town after a 31–0 drubbing of the Silver & Black by the Philadelphia Eagles.

I had been reporting (and frustrating many fantastic Raiders fans) that the fate of future Hall of Fame head coach Pete Carroll was not settled.

Carroll intended to have a long talk with owner Mark Davis after the season to explain how he could help the Raiders be resurrected. Carroll had never quit anything in his life, and per the person on the phone (a source very close to Carroll), there was "No f-king chance the coach would resign."

I was asked by the person on the phone to ask Pete in his post-game press conference the next week in Houston if he wanted to be part of the Raider rebuild.

I did, and he was emphatic that he wanted to.

The Second Critical Phone Call

I had learned and started reporting on Dec. 22, after the Raiders' narrow loss to Houston, that no conversation with Mark Davis would save Carroll.

Ironically, the dysfunction that ruined 2025 was not all laid at Carroll's feet, and frankly, it should not have been.

The Raiders' issues in 2025 were systemic, and after decades of atrophy that began long before Al Davis passed away, reality hit the Silver & Black hard.

The franchise had gotten so far away from its roots and what it had been that the only way was not a quick fix. From top to bottom, the Raiders needed a new mindset based on their old identity.

I learned that the Raiders wanted the parting to be amicable. Not one person, on or off the record, had anything bad to say about Pete, and in fact, they went out of their way to make it clear no one blamed him.

Conversely, on or off the record, Pete never said a disparaging thing about the organization or anyone in it.

I am not a fan, but for a great and proud franchise and a future Hall of Fame coach whom I personally and professionally respect tremendously, it was sad to see.

Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026: 11:53 p.m.

My phone rang, and I was asked to ask Pete Carroll another question at his postgame press conference the next day. The question was straightforward, so was his answer.

The question was simple: Did he plan to return to the Raiders in 2026? His answer, "Of course, sure, of course."

I had been told that the Raiders wanted to have a celebration of Carroll's career and thank him on his way out, but the 74-year-old wanted nothing to do with that.

He signed his contract, he expected himself to honor it, and the Raiders to as well. Whether Carroll knew or admitted it, his time in the desert was over.

Reality Changed

I had said for several weeks prior to the Raiders getting on board with a rebuild that the team should put Carroll in charge and keep Spytek as his deputy in the GM chair, since Carroll had been with Seahawks GM John Schneider in the same role. An idea I know Carroll supported.

He had done it before, and with the Raiders consistently being nothing but dysfunctional, at least let the one who had done it do it.

But something had changed. A seismic shift had taken place in the Raider Nation; it was not going to be the same old change for the sake of change, the same dysfunction from a different source.

The 2025 season had embarrassed the franchise. New members to the ownership and leadership team had joined the Silver & Black and were all winners, some in football, some in business, but all of them winners.

Not one of them disliked Mark Davis; in fact, all of them respected his desire to win, but enough was enough. Or as one key Raiders leader said, "Enough of this s-t. We've got to get back to where we belong."

I had no clue if the Raiders would fix the dysfunction. Behind the scenes, John Spytek has masterfully been studying what went wrong, not just in 2025, but also what was wrong.

One critical member of the Raiders organization said, "John didn't care who looked bad, or what looked bad, he just wanted to understand why and how to fix it. He doesn't f-k around, 2025 screwed with everyone, but I think it made him sick."

He added, "If the Raiders were not committed to fixing it, I mean, really fixing it, I think he would have left. He's a winner, man, and he doesn't want to be associated with losing."

A former teammate of Tom Brady told me, "I think Tom was sick as hell. All he wants to do is win. I see all this s-t about his ego, and staying away from the Raiders because they were losing, and it is just bulls-t. His name is on that team now; he will not allow them to lose."

Back to the beginning

Warning signs appeared early in 2025, but, to be honest, they were easy to overlook at worst and underappreciated at best.

Pete Carroll was not the first choice; that, in and of itself, was not a warning sign, but it offered a glimpse into the mindset of Brady and even Spytek.

They wanted to rebuild and to lay the foundation. Starting with a highly respected young coach was a no-brainer. While Brady isn't in the building every day, he does have a loud voice.

I can't say it enough: all parties involved never once tried to sabotage the others, but nearly all had different ideas about how the Raiders should pursue things.

Brady knew the absolute importance of offense, and Ben Johnson had the mind Brady admired. Carroll, I was told by two NFL sources, "was not the ideal choice in Brady's world," but as one person directly familiar with the inner workings of the Raiders told me several times, "Everyone has a boss."

Chip Kelly and the Offense

Brady was the driving force behind Chip Kelly. They had worked together before, and Brady respected his offensive mind. Many did.

Brady, according to a source close to the coaching staff, "Doesn't want to invent the wheel, but can we at least get a Raiders offense that punches some people in the brain? Make them think."

Quickly, whether wrongly or accurately, Kelly ran his offense. He did what he wanted.

Before the regular season, there was a lot of smoke around second-year offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson.

The former Oregon Duck didn't show the athleticism that Kelly craved. While speculation ran rampant that JPJ could be completely on the way out, I had two different NFL teams ask me whether I thought he would be made available.

Love or hate JPJ, I am a believer, and so are people around the league.

When I approached a member of the organization about the JPJ situation and the NFL team's interest in him, I was told, "You just make sure you are telling people when the season starts, he will be a starter at guard."

I did, and he was.

But that wasn't the only issue with this team offensively.

Kelly tried to defer when rookie running back Ashton Jeanty's stance changed, that he was above such coaching, and it was a position coach decision, to which a team source told me that evening, "Bull-t. That is Chip trying to prove he was the smartest man in the room."

Frustration grew quickly on Kelly's own staff. One member of that staff, who told me for this article, "I like Chip, great guy, but the pressure of being Brady's guy and trying to show he deserved the highest paid OC gig, I think, led him to micromanage, and prove he was the smartest guy. He was never a jerk, but it was his baby."

The Text Heard 'Round the NFL

On Oct. 20, 2025, I sat down with my wife, Shannon, and my son, Dexter, for dinner. I remember it like yesterday. I got two phone calls in a row that set the stage for the worst year of my career covering a team.

The day before, the Raiders had been crushed by their arch-rival, the Chiefs, in Kansas City, 31–0.

The franchise was, and should have been, embarrassed. Not for losing in that stadium to that team, but to have looked utterly inept, uncaring, and clueless.

My phone rang, and it was a member of another NFL team.

He informed us he had heard me say that the team had done a lot in training camp, yet they still weren't doing it, and it made no sense.

He laughed and told us about the text.

On Sept. 2, 2025, a then member of the Raiders coaching staff texted him two words, "We're f-ked."

The man told us that even back then, "Chip was already tinkering with what had gone good in camp, and charging things. They knew they were f-ked way back then."

The second phone call, I will come back to later.

How Bad Was the Kelly Way?

Pete Carroll, despite never making it personal with Chip, even in his press conferences, couldn't hide his frustration with the offense.

I asked Kelly on Nov. 4, 2025, about the criticism of his usage of Ashton Jeanty. "There has been significant criticism of the usage of Ashton Jeanty. Do you think that criticism is fair, or do you think it's just much ado about nothing?"

To which the coach replied, "I think he leads the league in rookie rushing in carries, so I think everything we do game plan-wise is about winning that game. So, it's not about how many gets, how many touches. Maybe some fantasy people are a little disturbed, but we're not coaching for fantasy people, so we're just trying to win games."

But after my Nov. 4 question, later that month, after I left the locker room one day, Kelly exited the team cafeteria to talk with me. The conversation was in confidence, so the contents of what Kelly said remain private.

What I can tell you is that, despite rumors of Brady running the Raiders' offense, 100% of the offense's terribleness was on Kelly. Brady may have been the reason Kelly was in Las Vegas, but the Raiders' offense, or lack thereof, was all on Kelly.

It was that bad.

Back in November, a defensive player told me about an interaction between two offensive players on the team.

"It was crazy, man." After a stoppage in play, the game took a TV timeout, and the two offensive players were walking off the field while the defense was walking on.

"He [offensive player No. 1] looked at the other like, 'Man, what the f-k play was that? He's making that s-t up?' And [offensive player No. 2] says, ‘No, I think that was from like training camp or mandatory, some s-t like that.' For real, bro, for real."

Fans may not know or understand this, but each week you put together a game plan, the plays that they will use, and you only get limited practice time, but there are always new plays and wrinkles.

I asked two experienced offensive coordinators about this story, and how strange it was to use plays from four to five months previous, and their answers will tell you about the Kelly year in Vegas.

"Are you kidding me? Are you serious? I won't even use plays from four or five weeks ago; that is setting your team up to fail."

The other said succinctly, "Tom Brady is the most prepared player in NFL history; if he knew that, he would blow a gasket."

I reported this story that week, minus the coordinators' commentary. Kelly was out as OC shortly after this incident.

Message Sent

Brady isn't afraid to spend money. Despite the fame and fortune, those closest to him will tell you, "He is solely and totally focused on winning."

He and the other new minority owners, along with Mark Davis, only care now about winning.

With the Silver & Black no longer cash-strapped or cheap, they were willing to make Kelly the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL when they signed him on Feb. 4, 2025, to a three-year, $18 million deal.

On Nov. 23, 2025, Brady and the Raider brain trust proved this wasn't about ego; it was about winning. It cost them millions, but they didn't care. Winning was the mantra, and futility was unacceptable. Kelly was out.

At the NFL owners' meetings in Phoenix earlier this year, an NFL GM told me, "I don't have any idea who had the idea to fire Chip, but it had to go through Tom. Tom showed the rest of the league that he demands improvement and wins, but doesn't backslide or fail. He sent a message that Tom, the killer quarterback, was out for blood as an owner. Al [Davis] would have been proud."

The Patrick Graham Saga

Patrick Graham is one of the smartest men in the National Football League.

I had reported during the 2024 season that I didn't expect him to return. I had reason to. He was woefully underpaid, and many in the organization thought that Antonio Pierce losing him to run the defense led to Pierce getting the head coaching job, more than anything else.

True or not, that debate is not what this article is about. The reality was that the Raiders had woefully underpaid him, and Graham had suitors, lots of them.

Many around the league see him as a prime head coaching candidate that, according to one executive, "Has to get away from the losing stench of the Raiders to show it isn't him." The league understood, the fans didn't.

Graham was in Jacksonville, deep in conversations to become the Jaguars' head coach, and, while on a break, Liam Coen had changed his mind, and the Jaguars decided to go with the young, offensive-minded coach for their quarter-of-a-billion-dollar QB, Trevor Lawrence.

Carroll was calling.

​One person with direct knowledge of the situation told me at the time that Pete was "begging" Graham to remain in Las Vegas and run the Raiders D.

Carroll had assured Graham that, with his experience, the Raiders would get back on track and that he would lead the franchise back to glory.

He also assured Graham that he was his number one choice and that he would get a significant raise immediately, but that, with a return to winning, head coaching opportunities would follow.

Carroll had a number of assistants who had progressed, and while Graham was frustrated with an organization that repeatedly shot themselves in the foot, he loved his players and was DL coach (Now DC) Rob Leonard's biggest fan.

Do you remember I told you previously about two phone calls on Oct. 20, 2025? Well, I promised you I would come back to it, and here we go.

The Raiders had just been embarrassed by the Chiefs 31–0, and the Raiders' defense was terrible. I had told fans for weeks that the Raiders' defense didn't look like Graham's because it wasn't.

Not long after the team's OTAs started, Carroll, many believe, frustrated by being ignored on offense, started to alter what he wanted from Graham. Graham desperately tried to explain to Carroll that wanting to do something and actually doing it were two different things.

While on the phone with the aforementioned NFL executive, a Raiders player called. What he had to say was not good news for an imploding Raiders team.

"What is up with Pete? I love the man, but he can't hold anybody accountable and that 'golly-gee we'll get them next week' pep talks are f-ked up. I think he only wanted PG [Patrick Graham] back so he could resign Maxx [Crosby], because PG ain't doing what PG do, and when he says f-k it, it works."

While fans berated Graham, ever the gentleman, he refused to call out Carroll and, as a previously mentioned member of the organization, said to me again, "Everybody has a boss."

I had reported earlier that I didn't expect Graham back, and that was the reason why.

In a never-before-released detail, I can tell you that Patrick Graham essentially ignored Carroll and ran his defense for a grand total of six halves in 2025. That is an accumulative total of three games, and in those six halves, his Silver & Black defense allowed only nine points.

No one, publicly or privately, ever trashed Carroll the man to me. The Brady, Spytek, Carroll marriage failed not because anyone sabotaged anyone. It was three good guys who love the game, and Carroll's vision of how to get there, and what he sold them was going to happen, but it didn't.

Carroll was liked, but he lost his defense by overriding Patrick Graham and, on the side of the ball Graham had taught accountability, turned one loss after another into a pep rally when, according to one player, "It needed to be an a-chewing, not an a- kissing."

Wait, What?

Pete Carroll was asked on July 22, the opening day of training camp, about his expectations.

The Raiders had had lots of internal meetings, and Carroll knew that Spytek and Carroll wanted to build long-term.

That doesn't mean that they wanted to tank, far from it, but Pete had "Pounded the pulpit" that the Raiders weren't' far off, and after a 2025 NFL draft in which there were several pieces they liked, they thought everyone was on the same page.

Carroll's answer about expectations put some members of the organization on edge. An edge that lasted the entirety of the 2025 season.

"Oh, we are going to win a ton. We are going to win a bunch of games. I can't even imagine anything else. I've been winning 10 games a year for 20 years or something, you know? I mean, what are my expectations? We are going to win a bunch, and I don't care who hears that."

The Raiders didn't win (they had only three wins) and failed to win big all year.

Rookies … Please?

Whether it was Ashton Jeanty, Jack Bech, Caleb Rogers, Charles Grant, or even Darien Porter, the rookies' usage made no sense for most of the 2025 season.

At the aforementioned July 22, 2025, press conference, Carroll dropped the gauntlet of expectations for the promising 2025 rookie class.

"I've always been in favor of playing young guys. I've been playing freshmen and rookies for a long time. And I believe if you do it well, and you plot out and plan how you play them and what you expect them to be asked to do, then they can contribute early and by mid-season."

"And now that your depth chart has changed, you have the opportunity to rest guys and make sure your rotations can get accelerated. I'm not afraid to play the young guys, and I really documented that a long time ago. And so, they're on. They'd better be ready. They got to go. We're putting them in there."

To say that the rookie class was underutilized and at times ignored would be fair.

Certain members of the organization seethed as players who had earned reps weren't getting them.

The entire 2025 class, despite receiving paychecks, deserved apologies for the dysfunction of the Raiders' coaching staff.

The Raiders understood early that for the organization to succeed long-term, the coaching staff and those at the top had to be on the same page.

They weren't in many cases when it came to the 2025 rookie class.

What We Learned

The 2025 Raiders season can go down in the record books as a failure, a poster child for dysfunction, or a foundation for change.

Spytek, leading the charge along with those above him, chose the latter.

Not once did anyone lay the blame at Kelly's or Carroll's feet.

They took it all. They were in charge. Having a future Hall of Fame coach that loves football is great, but if you aren't on the same page, it is a disaster.

People love deep-dive articles that offer palace intrigue, but the reality is that last season, there were a lot of great guys on the Raiders, yet they didn't work well together.

At the NFL Owners meetings, a well-known executive told me, "We all know that one couple, awesome people, you love them both, but they just couldn't make the marriage work. Both stay friends when it's over, but they admit it was doomed. That was the 2025 Raiders."

The Raiders knew they wanted an offensive savant, but one who worked analytically and (my apologies to Spytek, who prefers I use the word methodically) collaboratively.

Brady and Spytek didn't want a yes man, but they wanted one who didn't point to Super Bowl appearances or National Championships when someone else had an idea. For all his success, Brady is famous for despising yes-people but loathing those who bring nothing to the table other than their voice. As one former teammate put it, "Tom craves substance."

Spytek recognized early that Klint Kubiak was the potential answer.

They talked to many people, but Kubiak was the only offer and the first choice.

The assembling of a staff, all Kubiak's choice, but again he listened, and Rob Leonard is your defensive coordinator.

The same throughout free agency and the NFL draft.

The Raiders didn't have time to pout; they didn't have time to lick their wounds.

They did what great organizations do. They took the blame because they were in charge, and they set out to fix it.

In my over three decades of reporting, I have seen poorly run franchises, just look at the last six seasons here in the desert, but I have also seen winners.

Never, once, have I seen an organization change so quickly.

This is a two-year rebuild. The ultimate goal is to avoid a cyclical rotation of making the playoffs every five years.

The Silver & Black expect to be there every year beginning in 2028.

Don't tell the Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos or the rest of the NFL just yet. They'll laugh at you.

But if you are a Raiders fan, it has been too long since you could think about your franchise's future, and unaided by the mass consumption of an adult beverage, feel legitimately excited about your organization's future.

You can now.

A Raider great who knows Tom Brady told me, "Tom isn't dumb; he knows he has to win a championship for this fan base to embrace him. He was embarrassed last year; he isn't used to losing, and I trust him with my team. I know him; he embodies refuse to lose, and Spy [John Spytek] is cooking at the same restaurant with him."

You've had good guys here, and you still do, Raider Nation.

Everybody is finally on the same page. Will they stay on it?

2025 was a master's degree in what not to do, and it appears the Raiders were smart enough to listen, trust their instincts, and change.

It cost them tens of millions of dollars to learn those lessons, but they were dollars well spent if they stayed the course.

I suspect that when their time in the desert is over, and John Spytek and Tom Brady hoist a Lombardi Trophy, a smile will crack their faces.

Not one thinking about the confetti, but one thinking back at 2025. A foundation for a Raiders rebuild was laid.

Pete Carroll is still a Hall of Famer, so is Tom Brady, and the Raiders are still NFL royalty.

What the Raiders have in Spytek is a visionary. He's a realist, a methodical man at the helm, who finally has the ear of all the right people.

Remember, "Everyone has bosses," including Spytek.

If they let him do his job, he won't let you down, Raider Nation.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/raiders/onsi as Inside the Raiders: Explaining 2025 Collapse – and Why There's Hope for 2026.

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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM.