John Spytek’s first offseason as General Manager of the Raiders is mostly in the books (though excitement can still come in June), and the consensus seems to be that he got a lot right in his first six months on the job.
The offseason might not have come together perfectly (losing Robert Spillane wasn’t a wonderful development), but Spytek walked the line of rebuilding the team without entering full rebuild mode and addressed a lot of important needs in the process.
Spytek was hired ahead of Carroll, but Carroll interviewed almost two weeks before Spytek, so he doesn’t get credit for the decision to hire the coach – at least not for this particular exercise.
Everything from Carroll’s hire forward, though, we’re giving credit to the general manager.
With that in mind, here we go. Spytek’s best moves since taking over as GM of the Raiders. In very particular order…
5. Retaining defensive coordinator Patrick Graham
Graham was arguably the best coach in the building last year and for a while it didn’t look like he was going to be back with the Raiders in 2025.
With so much turnover in the organization, the assumption was that Graham would leave for greener pastures, but Spytek and Carroll were able to bring back one of the league’s best defensive coordinators – and that could prove to be one of the team’s best decisions of the offseason.
4. Re-signing Malcolm Koonce
It’s easy to forget how dominant Koonce was in the second half of the 2023 season.
In nine games to close out the 2023 season, Koonce posted 8 sacks.
Even when he wasn’t sacking the quarterback in the second half of the season, Koonce was putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Pro Football Focus credited Koonce with 14 pressures under McDaniels (8 games) and 38 pressures under Pierce (9 games).
There were a lot of factors that went into Koonce’s big finish that year, but one of the obvious adjustments that defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was able to make under former head coach Antonio Pierce was the matter of Koonce’s time on the field.
Under McDaniels, Koonce only played 23.5 snaps per game, with 30 snaps being his highest single-game snap total. With Pierce, Koonce averaged 34.7 snaps per game, and he averaged 41 snaps per game in the final five games of the season.
Koonce had other options in free agency, but the Raiders made Koonce a priority to keep and he’s one of the best-kept secrets in the league going into his fifth NFL season.
3. Drafting Darien Porter and Dont’e Thornton
Thornton and Porter have been turning heads in offseason activities, and that’s an encouraging development considering how thin the Raiders are at wide receiver and cornerback.
Even if both players experience some hiccups in 2025, it sounds like they are already showing the physical tools to be elite players at their respective positions.
Even better, the Raiders only spent third and fourth round picks to get Thornton and Porter.
The middle rounds are where championship rosters are built, and Spytek’s first draft as an NFL general manager sure seemed like a success in that regard.
Drafting Ashton Jeanty was a pretty good move, too.
2. Extending Maxx Crosby
Crosby is the heart and soul of the locker room, but it’s no secret the Raiders turned down a few significant offers for their team captain prior to signing him to a three-year, $106.5 million contract extension.
The beauty of Crosby’s contract, though, is that the Raiders built a lot of flexibility into the deal.
If Crosby gets restless again, as he did in December, the Raiders can find a trade partner with minimal salary cap consequences – which is a big deal considering the size of his deal.
The graphic below from OverTheCap details the dead money and cap hit if the Raiders every decide to hit the eject button on Crosby’s deal.
1. Trading for Geno Smith
Geno Smith is one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the league and based on the cost the Raiders paid to get him, they valued the former Seahawks quarterback similarly to Matthew Stafford.
According to a report in March, the Raiders were only willing to give up a third-round pick for Stafford and that’s the pick they ended up sending to Seattle for Smith.
Carroll loves Smith and based on recent comments from the head coach, Smith was always his first choice to be the Raiders’ quarterback in 2025.
”I was trying to get that done from the moment this thing happened. I was hoping we could do something [to get Geno Smith],” Carroll said onSeattle’s Brock and Salk in May.
There isn’t much winning in the NFL without a good quarterback and the QB options weren’t looking great for the Raiders in January.
Getting Smith at the cost of a third-round pick at least makes the Raiders competitive in 2025 – and that should at least make them better than they were a year ago.
Honorable Mention: Hiring Chip Kelly
Kelly is a wild card. He’s an offensive genius that just won an NCAA national championsip.
Will Kelly be the next hot head-coaching candidate after this year or will he join a long list of offensive coordinators in Las Vegas that have left town without experiencing much success?
It feels like the mad scientist is going to be a boom or bust coordinator hire for the Raiders, but he at least brings more to the table than what Luke Getsy did a year ago.
x: @raidersbeat
OK, so let’s accentuate this narrative. Because the NFL has a 17 game regular season, it is very improbable that ANY NFL quarterback will get through the season unscathed. Therefore, I am an advocate of the Raiders getting a mobile, proven, battle tested back up quarterback. I believe that this person should be Joshua Dobbs.
I liken acquiring Dobbs to getting an affordable insurance policy. God forbid but should Geno Smith succumb to an unforseen injury, based on his past performance, Adian O’Donnell has shown that he IS NOT a mobile option. Likewise, while Tom Brady, Brock Purdy and Bo Nix have had successful rookie campaigns, it would be extremely optimistic to believe that the Raiders rookie quarterback would be able to come in and lead this team should injury befall Geno Smith.
Last year, injury forced Gardner Minshew and Adian O’Donnell to the bench and the Raiders had no choice other than to play Desmond Ritter. While Ritter was largely ineffective, he did have one trait that neither Minshew nor O’Donnell possessed and that was his mobility.
I believe that this trait cannot be overlooked or over emphasized especially at the quarterback position particularly in today’s NFL. Consequential, I believe that should the Raiders current General Manager wish to continue with his off season successful moves in rebuilding this team that he should at least consider adding a proven, battle tested and mobile backup quarterback to this roster.