On Monday, Jon Gruden was asked the question every Raiders fan has been wondering about since the team’s 35-27 win in New Orleans on Sunday.
On Wake Up Barstool, T-Bob asked Gruden whether this Raiders team is legitimate and where the ceiling is at in Klint Kubiak’s first year with the team.
As it often is with Gruden, he didn’t hedge.
“Well, I don’t know why not,” Gruden said of the Raiders’ chances of going keep in the playoffs. “I mean, last year, the Patriots went from 4 and 13 to the Super Bowl. Why can’t the Raiders do it?”
For what it’s worth, Gruden hasn’t been banging the Silver and Black drum this year a lot, either.
In July, on the same show, he picked the Raiders to finish fourth in the AFC West. He said they had improve, but called it “a very tough division with established coaches and quarterbacks.”
What changed his mind was just three games of football. This is the franchise’s first 3-0 start since 2021, and they have already matched last year’s win total. The point differential is +34, fourth-best in the NFL, and the defense is stepping up when needed.
Gruden also said the Raiders are “balanced,” that “they got a veteran quarterback” and “a great system on offense.” All three trace back to Kubiak.
Kubiak was calling plays for the Seahawks team that won the Super Bowl in February. He inherited an offense that finished last in the league in yards and points in 2025, at 14.2 points a game, and it’s scoring more than 29 a game now. He keeps running the ball even when it isn’t pretty, and that’s obviously what sets up the play-action.
Kirk Cousins is the payoff.
At 38 years old, he has thrown nine touchdown passes in three games, with at least three in every game. He’s the first quarterback (age 35+) to throw three TDs in each of his first three games in the season.
Kubiak coached him in Minnesota and knew what he was getting. “He has the experience. He has the maturity. And he’s making plays,” Kubiak said Sunday.
Brock Bowers is also back. He returned from knee surgery in New Orleans with 10 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown.
This is the part of Gruden’s case the numbers back hardest. “They got a fourth-quarter pass rush,” he said. “I mean, they got guys that can eat you up at crunch time.”
The Raiders have seven fourth-quarter sacks, tied for the league lead. They’ve forced seven fourth-quarter takeaways and haven’t allowed a single fourth-quarter point in three games. This defense had 11 fourth-quarter sacks in all of 2025.
New Orleans was the clearest example. Tyler Shough carved them up for three quarters without being sacked. Then Malcolm Koonce strip-sacked him and Maxx Crosby recovered. Rookie corner Hezekiah Masses picked him off, Jeremy Chinn strip-sacked him on fourth down, and Nakobe Dean punched the ball loose from Juwan Johnson to end it. That was four straight takeaways and 19 unanswered points.
“Turnovers in the fourth quarter got us and we weren’t able to overcome those,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said. “Those guys finished better than us.”
Crosby said the sideline never flinched at 27-16. “In those big moments, there’s no panic,” he said. “Just don’t panic. Just keep playing.”
The closers change from week to week, too. Crosby, Koonce, Kwity Paye, Eric Stokes and Chinn have all gotten home late, which makes it hard for an offense to game-plan one guy away.
Gruden added that “we got a good kicker so far” and he’s right about Matt Gay, who signed for $1.6 million in March and has already hit a career-long 59-yarder.
His biggest point might be about the league itself: “Anybody can win this thing right now. I don’t see anybody that’s truly dominant and unbeatable.”
That’s hard to argue with.
The defending champion Seahawks just lost to a Commanders team starting Marcus Mariota, and the Rams and Patriots are both 1-2. In a year without a juggernaut, a balanced team that finishes games with its pass rush has a real shot.
Coach Kubiak isn’t getting carried away either.
“It’s a 17-game season,” he said. “We can’t be happy or satisfied with this win.”
That’s the right answer from a head coach, but it doesn’t make Gruden wrong. Three games can’t prove a team is a contender, but they can show whether it has the parts of one. This team has a quarterback who scores, a Super Bowl-tested offensive system, a top-seven scoring defense that gets nastier in the fourth quarter, and a kicker with range. That’s a contender’s checklist.
Gruden ended his answer with a look ahead…
“We’ll find out about the Raiders this Sunday because the Chiefs are coming to town, and I can’t wait to see that.”
Neither can Las Vegas. It’s 3-0 vs. 3-0 at Allegiant, with first place in the AFC West on the line. This franchise was projected for about six wins a month ago, and now it’s hosting Patrick Mahomes in a game that matters in early October.
Calling the Raiders a Super Bowl contender in September is early, but it isn’t crazy.
On Sunday, the Raiders get their chance to prove Gruden right.
x: @raidersbeat