Raiders 2026 Season Preview: Klint Kubiak, Kirk Cousins, and a Rookie Named Mendoza Try to Fix a 3-14 Mess
I am a Bay Area guy, so I will say the quiet part out loud: this used to be our team, and they left. But the 2026 Raiders are worth previewing anyway, if only because a 3-14 disaster hired a new coach, imported a bridge quarterback, and spent the No. 1 overall pick on the future. Here is where Las Vegas actually stands.
Let me get the Bay Area feelings out of the way first, because you know I have them. This is the Oakland Raiders. They belonged to this region, they were the meanest, most beloved franchise the East Bay ever had, and then they packed up and went to a stadium in the desert chasing money the way the A's are now chasing it in Sacramento. So no, I do not root for them anymore. But a preview is a preview, and this team just blew the whole thing up and started over, which makes it a lot more interesting than another quiet also-ran year would have been.
Where the Raiders stand coming in
The number that frames everything is 3-14. That is what the 2025 Raiders were, a full-blown disaster, and it cost Pete Carroll his job after a single season. Think about that. They handed the keys to a 70-something-year-old Hall of Fame-track coach as the grown-up in the room, it produced three wins, and they moved on after one year. When your celebrity hire washes out that fast, the honest read is that the problem was never just the sideline. It was the roster, and a 3-14 roster does not get fixed in one offseason no matter whose name is on the office door.
The new coach: Klint Kubiak
In comes Klint Kubiak, named head coach in February, fresh off a run as the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator. He is a Kubiak, which means the zone-running, play-action, quarterback-friendly bloodlines are real, and he is young and offense-first in a way Carroll never pretended to be. I actually like the direction more than the last one. Hiring a rising offensive mind to build a system and develop a quarterback is a plan. Hiring a legend for the headline was not. Whether Kubiak can turn scheme into wins with this specific roster is the entire question of his tenure, and it starts now.
The quarterback plan: Cousins now, Mendoza next
Here is the part that tells you what this season really is. The Raiders are set to open with Kirk Cousins under center, the veteran brought in to steady the huddle and keep the offense functional. Cousins is not the future and everyone in the building knows it. He is the bridge, the guy who plays while the real project sits and learns. That project is Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick out of Indiana, the quarterback this franchise actually mortgaged its top selection on. The plan is obvious and, frankly, sensible: let Cousins absorb the hits early, bring Mendoza along at the pace Kubiak wants, and hand him the keys the moment he is ready. If the losses pile up the way a 3-14 team's losses tend to, that moment could arrive faster than the depth chart says.
The pieces around them
It is not a barren cupboard. Ashton Jeanty headlines the backfield, and a downhill, explosive back is exactly the kind of weapon a Kubiak offense is built to feature, which should take some pressure off whoever is throwing the ball. That matters, because a rookie quarterback or an aging bridge both live a lot easier when the run game travels. On defense, the Raiders promoted Rob Leonard to coordinator from within, keeping some continuity on that side while the offense gets rebuilt around the new staff. There are real players here. There are also obvious holes, which is what you would expect from a team that won three games and then traded away a receiver like Jakobi Meyers, shipped to Jacksonville, rather than building around him.
The schedule reality: the AFC West is a meat grinder
And now the cold water, because you did not come here for spin. The AFC West is a brutal place to rebuild. The Raiders play the Chiefs and the Broncos twice each and the Chargers twice, which means a huge chunk of the schedule is spent against three teams that are all further along than they are. A young team trying to install a new system and break in a quarterback does not get soft landings in that division. It gets Patrick Mahomes twice and a gauntlet the rest of the way. That is the environment Kubiak, Cousins, and eventually Mendoza have to grow up inside, and it is not a forgiving one.
The bottom line
So what is 2026 for the Raiders? It is a transition year, plainly, and the franchise seems to know it. This is not a team built to contend this fall. It is a team laying track for a quarterback and a coaching staff, hoping to turn a corner in 2027 while it takes its lumps in a loaded division in the meantime. Judge this season on development, not on the standings. Does Mendoza look like a franchise quarterback when he plays? Does Kubiak's offense have an identity? Does Jeanty become a real centerpiece? Those are the wins that matter for a 3-14 team, because the ones in the standings are going to be hard to come by.
I will watch, the way you always watch an old flame from across the room. Rooting for them? No. That ended when the moving trucks did. But if you want an honest read on the 2026 Raiders, here it is: a smart reset with a sensible quarterback plan, a promising young coach, and a genuine building block in the backfield, dropped into the worst possible division to try to do any of it. Progress is on the table. Wins, this year, are going to be a lot harder to find.
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