Las Vegas Raiders — 2026 season outlook, updated Oct 14, 2026.
Las Vegas Raiders finished the 2026 season 3-2.
Las Vegas Raiders: 3-14 regular season.
Based on verified play-by-play data (nflverse).
By the numbers — 2026
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2026 schedule
- Bye week 13 — see all 2026 byes.
- 18th-hardest schedule — opponents average 8.44 projected wins.
- Raiders backfield and handcuffs — depth chart, refreshed daily.
Raiders players we cover
Raiders 17, Patriots 45 — Week 5: Missed From 49, Down 21-7 at Half
Las Vegas lost 45-17 at New England after a forced fumble turned into a missed 49-yard field goal and a Patriots touchdown before halftime; the pass defense allowed 374 yards and four touchdown passes, and 17 designed runs gained 35 yards.
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More episodes
- Camp · Sep 3, 2026
Raiders Camp — Sep 3: Cousins Named, Mendoza Waits
Klint Kubiak named Kirk Cousins the Week 1 starter on Wednesday, five days after refusing to — which makes Fernando Mendoza the first No. 1 overall pick since 2018 to sit an opener. Las Vegas spent the top waiver priority on a cornerback, Darrell Luter Jr., not the receiver Kubiak had floated, then lost a receiver anyway: Dont'e Thornton Jr. to injured reserve for at least four games. Seventeen practice-squad players as of Monday, and every one but the last came off the team's own ninety. Keyron Crawford's injury is an Achilles, not an ankle.
- Camp · Aug 31, 2026
Raiders Camp — Aug 31: Three Quarterbacks Stay, No Week 1 Starter Named
The Raiders kept all three quarterbacks on the initial 53 — the exact cutdown decision our last episode flagged — and Klint Kubiak declined to name a Week 1 starter seven days after calling the job Kirk Cousins' to lose. The rest of cut day brought a deadline-day trade of Jordan Meredith to the Jets, season-ending injured reserve for rookie edge Keyron Crawford, and Ashton Jeanty — a name our last episode missed — making the roster while working back from an ankle sprain.
- Camp · Aug 23, 2026
Raiders Camp — Aug 23: Mendoza's First Start Opens With a Pick-Six
Fernando Mendoza's first NFL start opened with an 80-yard pick-six and ended at halftime down 20-3, before Aidan O'Connell led 20 unanswered points and won it 22-20 with a sneak and 14 seconds left. By Friday, Klint Kubiak was calling Week 1 Kirk Cousins' job to lose — and the three-quarterback question became a real cutdown decision.
- Camp · Aug 16, 2026
Las Vegas Raiders Camp Update — August 16: Kubiak Opens First-Team Reps to All Three
Fernando Mendoza's first NFL film exists: four series, 10-of-16 for 97 yards and a touchdown, composed by every account. Kirk Cousins was nearly perfect for one drive and then watched — and by Friday Klint Kubiak was saying all three quarterbacks deserve first-team reps. The timeline the season exists to answer keeps moving up.
- Camp · Aug 9, 2026
The timeline question the whole season exists to answer just advanced: the rookie saw increased work and his first snaps with the ones this week, while Klint Kubiak went out of his way to say he's "not married" to Kirk Cousins. The bridge is load-bearing, and the traffic is starting to cross.
- 2026 Preview
Las Vegas Raiders 2026 Season Preview — No Luck to Blame, Nothing Left to Excuse
The 3-14 was exactly as bad as it looked — no luck excuse — so the rebuild imported the Super Bowl champs' offense, the No. 1 pick, and the richest center contract ever.
- Season Review
3-14 regular season
- Draft Recap
10 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft
- Week 4
Raiders 27, Chiefs 30 — Week 4: Lost It in Thirty-Three Seconds
Las Vegas led Kansas City 19-17 with 3:35 left and lost 30-27, as a 55-yard Tyquan Thornton catch, a fumbled kickoff return and two Kenneth Walker touchdowns put 13 Chiefs points on the board in 33 seconds of game clock. Kirk Cousins threw for 365 yards and the passing game matched its rate from the first three weeks, but the run defense allowed 190 yards and plus 5.8 expected points.
- Week 3
Raiders 35, Saints 27 — Week 3: Down Eleven, Then Forced Four
Las Vegas won 35-27 at New Orleans after trailing 27-16 late in the third quarter, scoring the game's last 19 points while the Saints' final four possessions all ended in turnovers.
- Week 2
Raiders 26, Chargers 14 — Week 2: Three Turnovers Forced, Two and Oh
Las Vegas won 26-14 at the Chargers on Sunday to reach 2-0 behind three takeaways, a Nakobe Dean forced fumble that Jeremy Chinn returned 43 yards to set up the clinching touchdown, and four pass plays that gained 20 or more yards, while its run game managed 60 yards on 26 rush plays.
- Week 1
Raiders 27, Dolphins 13 — Week 1: Five Sacks and a 93-Yard Drive
Las Vegas opened with a sixteen-play, ninety-three-yard touchdown drive that took almost nine minutes, and never trailed. The defense sacked Malik Willis five times, allowed no passing touchdowns, and held Miami's passing game to a thirty-four percent success rate, second-best of the week. The Raiders' own offense produced plus eleven expected points in the first half and minus fourteen in the second, and ran eight times for zero yards in the fourth quarter.
- Week 3 · What Repeats
Raiders, Week 3 — What Repeats: Four Turnovers, Few Risky Throws
The Raiders' four fourth-quarter takeaways came against a quarterback who threw 32 catchable balls on 42 throws, 11th-highest in the league this week, and one interception-worthy ball that counted, while the run game gained about 3.2 yards a designed run once Mike Washington's 36-yard touchdown is set aside, light box or heavy.
- Week 2 · What Repeats
Raiders, Week 2 — What Repeats: Lighter Boxes, Shorter Runs
A week after Miami showed Las Vegas the fewest light boxes in the league and the Raiders ran 33 designed runs for 133 yards, the Chargers showed six or fewer on 15 of 25 designed runs and Las Vegas gained 56 yards, while Kirk Cousins threw a catchable ball on 24 of 29 throws and his receivers dropped 4 of them.
- Week 1 · What Repeats
Raiders, Week 1 — What Repeats: Three Light Boxes All Day
Miami showed Las Vegas a light box on 3 of 33 designed runs, 9 percent — the lowest share any offense in the league saw in Week 1, against 66 percent across all of last season — and the Raiders ran those 33 for 133 yards anyway, while Kirk Cousins put 2 of 30 throws up for grabs, the fifth-highest interception-worthy rate of the week, and threw 2 interceptions.
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From The Muffed Read
- Which first-month signals are real? San Francisco's offense, Atlanta's run game, Minnesota's blitz, the five 0-4 teams and Jaxon Smith-Njigba's targets, run through a ruler built for four games.
Four games in, how a team plays repeats far better than how well it plays: blitz rate, run-pass lean and target share all carry into the rest of the season at 0.51 or better, defensive results at 0.29 and touchdowns at 0.19. And no 0-4 team in ten seasons has reached the playoffs; this season has five.
- Which three-game patterns are worth believing? San Francisco's offense, Minnesota's blitz, the Raiders' 3–0, Houston's 0–3 and the receivers who kept their shares, run through a ruler built for three games.
Three games in, this season's offense now outweighs last season's. Defense still doesn't. Minnesota, the Raiders, Houston's 0–3, and the receivers whose shares held.
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