Three weeks from now, the Raiders will finally kick off the Klint Kubiak era against the Miami Dolphins at Allegiant Stadium in the 2026 season opener. The hope around the building is obvious, but so is the patience factor: this is being viewed as a long haul, with an understanding that it could take 2-3 years before the Raiders are back in playoff form.
What’s already stood out in OTAs and training camp, though, is the way Kubiak has run the operation. Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter laid out this week how different it has felt compared with what came before in Las Vegas.
In his Wednesday mailbag column, Carpenter described Antonio Pierce’s 2024 camp as “very loose and lacked cohesiveness,” and said Pete Carroll’s 2025 camp felt overly geared toward getting everyone amped up rather than being efficient. He said there were complaints from staff and players who felt their time wasn’t respected, and one player told him, “I think they want the atmosphere to be like a lock-in in middle school. I’m a grown-*** man.
This year, Carpenter said, has been the opposite. He called it “highly efficient,” “Planned to the last second,” and said “Every moment from the start of the schedule to the end was packed and productive.
It was a business meeting.” He added that Kubiak treats the job with the expectation that “playing in the NFL, and for a franchise like the Raiders, is a privilege, and if you need to be motivated, go somewhere else.”
Carpenter has also drawn a contrast between Kubiak and Josh McDaniels. In June, he said players have noticed that Kubiak is communicative and direct.
“That’s not Klint. Klint is a guy that when he’s happy, he’s talking to you.
Klint is a guy when he’s happy, he’s communicating to you. Klint is a guy that when he’s when he’s telling you, ‘Hey, I like this, I don’t like this.’
And so, they appreciate he’s very communicative. [Don’t] think he’s coming off as a non-communicative person because that’s not the case at all.
A couple of people have mentioned that specifically. They think he’s extremely communicative.
He also relayed what one player told him about McDaniels’ style: “I had one player who would tell me about Josh McDaniels… they liked him the person off the field… away from football and you can be away from football in the building. But they said, I don’t think there’s anything Josh McDaniels dislikes more than having to say, ‘meeting is over.’
Carpenter said there were a lot of meetings under Pete, but they were not always efficient. He pointed to one meeting he was told about in which a coach was teaching while also discussing something with his boss, leaving players to sit through coaches talking among themselves.
His point was simple: that belongs in coaches’ meetings, not in the classroom. Once players are in there, Carpenter said, it should be “boom, boom, boom, boom efficiency…”
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