The Raiders took plenty of heat a year ago for the wrong kind of family tie. Pete Carroll’s decision to bring in his son, Brennan Carroll, as offensive line coach didn’t work out, and Brennan Carroll’s lone season in Las Vegas did little to improve his reputation.
This year’s version looks a lot different.
Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak, the son of former Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak, and the early returns have turned the conversation from skepticism to praise. John Middlekauff laid out that contrast on Tuesday’s episode of the Colin Cowherd Podcast, arguing that not all nepotism is created equal.
“Last year was much closer to like Freddie Kitchens and Jim Tomsula going on from the stories I’ve heard with the Raiders. Like it was Belichick level embarrassing, the stuff internally going on.
I don’t think Pete is malicious… I think Bill can be. They’re different personalities, but Pete puts on a smile sometimes and you got some of the stuff going on behind the scenes.
It’s like, Pete, how are you allowing this to happen?
To go from that to go to Kubiak, who you see him, he looks young, like if you’re listening to Klint talk, he’s very serious, a lot like his dad, not much personality. I don’t think he has BS’ed with many people around the halls.
Gary was a lot like that. Not really the life of the party.
All about football all the time. And from what I’ve heard, [Klint] is pulling Belichick hours…
Sometimes, we hear this, the nepotism. Sometimes it works.
When the Kubiaks and the Shanahans are around their dads at four or five years old, and they know the offense that takes the league by storm like the back of their hand, and they’re into it, and they’re talented. Yeah, their ceiling is a little bit higher than the guy that just starts learning the offense at 25 years old.”
That’s the case Middlekauff made: the Raiders didn’t just hire a coach with a famous last name, they hired someone who grew up in the game and learned from some of the best offensive minds around.
And for a team that looked like a mess internally last season, the change has been obvious. Kubiak’s style is the opposite of flashy. He doesn’t come across as a big personality, but his straight-ahead, football-first approach has clearly landed with the Raiders.
So far, that approach has helped make Las Vegas one of the most disciplined teams in the league. It has also produced something the organization had never done before to open a season.
The question now is whether the Raiders have found the kind of coach who can keep that standard going. Right now, the early answer looks a lot more promising than the last time they tried this whole family-business thing.
In Other News...
Raiders Suddenly Need More From The Offense Before Chiefs Game
Jack Bechs Week 3 injury forced the Raiders to lean harder on depth than they had probably planned, and the answer from offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko has been a familiar one: adjust on the fly and spread the workload around. Las Vegas has already started using its tight end duo more heavily, while also looking for ways to get other receivers involved and keep the formation flexible enough to hide the absence of a key target.
With the Chiefs up next, the Raiders offense needs to be more than just serviceable, because a one-player loss can quickly become a wider test of how adaptable the unit really is. Janockos approach points toward more versatile personnel packages and a bigger role for the run game and additional pass-catching options, but the real question is whether all of those moving parts can add up to enough production against a tougher opponent. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Week 4 Push Comes With A Bigger Rams Question
The Raiders head into Week 4 with a bigger-picture roster lens than the usual divisional urgency, because the game in front of them is only part of the conversation. With Kansas City on deck, the focus stays on keeping the season moving, but the evaluation behind the scenes is already widening toward next offseason and how Las Vegas can better support coach Klint Kubiaks system.
Much of that attention is landing on the Rams, where several players have become relevant free-agent names for the Raiders to monitor. Their recent form makes the fit worth exploring, and Las Vegas has reason to study how those pieces might translate if the front office decides to add more help on either side of the ball. The Week 4 push matters now, but the roster-building questions are starting to matter just as much. [Read more 🡒]
Former Raiders DC Suddenly Faces Pressure Steelers Fans Didn't Expect
Patrick Grahams move from Las Vegas to Pittsburgh was supposed to give the Steelers a fresh defensive voice heading into the 2026 season, and for a stretch it looked like the kind of hire that could settle things down. Instead, his first few weeks on the job have brought the same sort of uneven results that followed him at times with the Raiders, where the relationship between coach and organization never felt especially smooth.
Now the pressure is building in a place that rarely waits long to judge. Recent game footage appeared to catch T.J. Watt showing visible frustration toward Graham, a telling moment for a defense that is still trying to find its footing amid larger organizational issues. For a coordinator brought in to steady things, the tension is starting to become part of the story. [Read more 🡒]