The Raiders’ 2025 undrafted free agent class says as much about the organization as it does about the players.
General manager John Spytek spent real money on the margins, and the results were brutal. Of the five highest-paid undrafted free agents he brought to Las Vegas in 2025, four are already gone.
Three of those players are now in the UFL, and one is out of football entirely. Together, Mello Dotson, Jah Joyner, Tank Booker and Jarrod Hufford received $595,000 in guarantees.
The lone survivor is tight end Carter Runyon, who signed for $110,000 and remains on the roster.
That kind of return is ugly on its own. But the bigger issue is what it suggests about how the Raiders were operating behind the scenes.
UDFA classes are always a gamble. Teams know most of those players won’t stick, and no front office expects every signing to turn into a hit.
Still, this wasn’t just a case of a few long shots missing. Dotson, Joyner, Booker and Hufford were all paid like priority targets, then didn’t survive training camp.
That points to something more troubling: a gap between the people identifying the players and the people responsible for developing them.
The source of that gap appears to have been Pete Carroll. By most accounts, Carroll had little interest in investing in unproven players and leaned toward veterans he already knew and trusted. If that read is right, it helps explain why Joyner, who was viewed as a favorite to make the roster before camp even began, never really got the chance to validate Spytek’s evaluation.
That matters because undrafted rookies don’t usually arrive ready-made. They need reps.
They need patience. Strip that away, and the process is over before it starts.
It also changes how Spytek’s first year should be viewed. A general manager is supposed to find value where others don’t, and undrafted free agency is one of the cheapest places to do it.
On paper, Spytek may have done that part well. Dotson and Joyner were both seen as draftable players who simply slipped through.
But spotting a prospect and turning him into a contributor are not the same job. That only works when the front office and coaching staff are aligned. Without that, even smart evaluations can end up as wasted money.
Looking ahead to 2026, the real question in Las Vegas isn’t whether Spytek can identify undrafted talent. The evidence suggests he can.
The question is whether the next coaching staff will actually give those players a shot. Runyon’s presence on the roster offers at least one small example that the investment can pay off when the opportunity is there.
Whether that becomes the rule or stays the exception will tell the Raiders plenty about what kind of roster-building they really have in place.
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