Raiders Minicamp Reveals Key Signs of What's Coming Next

HENDERSON, Nev.-The Las Vegas Raiders have officially graduated from the optional part of the offseason to the mandatory as they opened NFL Mandatory Mini-Camp today here at the team's headquarters.

Seamless Fluidity on Display

In my over three decades of covering football, it is not only normal but expected that teams with a new regime will lack fluidity and even some organization at this time of year.

That expectation is not coming to fruition in Henderson.

The team maneuvered through the practice script with ease, no delays adding to the efficiency of practice and even the overall speed.

Coach Klint Kubiak craves efficiency in everything the team does, and that fluidity is a key ingredient of that focus.

It allows coaches and players more time to coach without taking away from the previously vital reps.

Assistant head coach Mike McCoy raved about the fluidity of this team already under Kubiak.

"Well, give Coach [Klint Kubiak] all the credit in the world for establishing a standard that's very high. He's very demanding. He's not going to hold back on anybody in the meetings, team meetings. He's not afraid to point anybody out at practice."

McCoy added, "It doesn't matter who you are, he's going to coach you hard. There's a standard, and that's the standard he set, and if you want to be great in this league, there's a way to prepare, a way to practice, a way to work, a way to be connected as a team. The things we've done, it's been outstanding, but everything starts with Klint's leadership and the way he treats the players."

Youth Is Served

Due to NFL restrictions, I can't offer as many intimate details as I would like, but from impressive members of the OTA class to rookies and even sophomores and juniors, you saw young players getting key coaching.

That is significant because, as coaching wanes, you can certainly get a sense of who is and isn't part of the long-term plan, or who is playing great. Something easy to ascertain.

I have reported to you since the 2025 collapse and since the new campaign began, with the Raiders all in on the rebuild, and 2026 was a year focused on young players.

Day one today didn't disappoint.

I asked Fernando Mendoza about the youth on this team, "There's a lot of youth on this team, and I haven't had much experience being on other NFL teams, but I believe the team is very connected, and it's a young core. It's a young core, so we're all able to mesh together, and we're all learning and growing together."

The QB Room Has a Bright Future

The addition of star veteran Kirk Cousins to mentor Aidan O'Connell and first overall rookie QB Fernando Mendoza was pure genius.

Not only does his presence bring mentoring to the room, but Cousins is an experienced and excellent QB who constantly coaches, teaches, and, more importantly, takes questions from his two teammates.

Aidan O'Connell described the QB room today, "There's a lot of youth on this team, and I haven't had much experience being on other NFL teams, but I believe the team is very connected, and it's a young core. It's a young core, so we're all able to mesh together, and we're all learning and growing together."

In 2007, while a true freshman at Michigan State, Cousins was already demonstrating what we see today.

Super Bowl-winning LB Greg Jones, who was a freshman All-American that year, told me at the time, "Don't ignore eight, Cousins. He can ball, and he is a great leader. I want to be a great leader like him; he's going to be a star."

I asked Cousins about his emergence, seemingly without missing a beat on the Raiders. He credited an Iconic NFL Hall of Fame legend for that.

"I remember when I signed with the Falcons, I reached out to Peyton Manning, and I just said, 'Hey, you signed with a new team at a similar stage in your career, going from Indy [Indianapolis] to Denver. How did you handle that?' And Peyton had a great -- because you want to go in there like guns blazing with all these thoughts, and Peyton had a great point."

"He said, 'Kirk, I think there's a part of you that needs to just kind of just ask questions, be a good listener, show up, kind of observe, don't go in there telling everybody how things need to be done.' And so, I took that approach in Atlanta, and I think it's smart."

Cousins continued, "At some point you do have to kind of take over, and Peyton was saying come training camp and near the end of training camp, I felt like the time had come for me to start to really assert myself."

"And so, I've kind of been feeling that out through OTAs, just trying to have good awareness of 'Let me ask questions, let me learn, let me pick up this system,' but then also, I got to be myself and bring personality to practice and compete, and I think sometimes you can't help yourself at practice."

"You just start playing football, and we're in competitive periods, we're in moving the ball, and I just start having fun and running my mouth in a good way, but at the same time, I think it's important that I do listen and ask questions and observe too."

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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 5:53 PM.