The Las Vegas Raiders are down to 53 players, but the roster work is nowhere close to finished.
After a busy stretch of coaching changes, personnel moves and preseason evaluations, Las Vegas now turns to the next layer of roster building: the practice squad. And for a team that has dealt with injuries over the last two seasons, that group matters more than most. The Raiders have twice had to scramble for extra bodies before a regular-season game, which makes the bottom of the roster a real part of the season plan, not an afterthought.
There are still about two weeks before the Raiders open against the Miami Dolphins, and that window is where the staff will keep sorting through the final edges of the roster. The team has already moved on from more than 40 players, but the turnover may not be done. Practice squad decisions could continue the purge of players from previous regimes while also giving Las Vegas a chance to reclaim some familiar names.
Klint Kubiak didn’t hide how hard that part of the job can be after the final preseason game.
“It's awful. You develop relationships with these guys since April and they give you their heart and their soul and all their time, and eventually it comes down to this,” Kubiak said the day after Las Vegas’ final preseason game.
“But there's also so many examples of guys that have been cut and make practice squads and make a team, or guys that get claimed by other teams, or guys that get cut five times and make 12-year careers. So, there's lots of examples that you can share with them to encourage them."
"There's a lot of good football players that are out there in the NFL that have been sliced and diced multiple times. Coaches too, hired and fired, and you just get better. You get better and you learn and you fail forward."
That message fits the moment in Las Vegas. The Raiders are still rebuilding a roster that spent years drifting toward the league’s bottom, and every piece of the operation has to improve if that changes. The practice squad is part of that process, especially with a first-time head coach trying to set the tone in his first season.
The NFL allows teams to carry 16 players on a practice squad, with the option to add an international player for a total of 17. Six of those spots can go to veterans. Teams can start building those squads at 12:00 pm ET on August 31.
Some of the players Las Vegas released could still wind up back in the building, and the Raiders will also be scanning the rest of the league for help after cutdown day. They let go of a few players who could matter later in the 2026 season, so there is real value in how they handle this next round of decisions.
The front office has taken a measured approach to most of the roster so far, and that same mindset should shape the practice squad as well. For a team trying to move faster through a rebuild, the talent it stockpiles now - and the development it gets from the players at the bottom of the 53 - can make a difference.
The Raiders have made progress, but the work is still very much underway. The practice squad is one of the last steps before the season begins, and the list will be updated as players are officially confirmed.
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