For years, the Las Vegas Raiders have been a team searching for an identity. There have been talented rosters. There have been promising starts. There have been stretches when the Raiders looked capable of building something meaningful. But too often, those moments have been followed by the same questions: Can they sustain it? Can they win when things aren’t going their way? Can this organization finally develop the consistency that separates legitimate contenders from teams that merely tease the possibility? Three games into the 2026 season, those questions are beginning to look different.
Vegas is 3-0, their best start since 2021, after rallying from an 11-point second-half deficit to defeat the Saints 35-27 in New Orleans. The victory also gave Las Vegas as many wins through three games as it had throughout the entire 2025 season. That doesn’t make them a finished product. It does, however, suggest that something fundamental has changed. This team doesn’t seem to be waiting for something to happen anymore. It is making things happen.
The most revealing part of Sunday’s victory wasn’t that the Raiders scored 35 points. It was how they responded after New Orleans appeared to take control. The Raiders allowed the Saints to march down the field, on there first possession of the 2nd half to take the lead. Following the touchdown the Raiders immediately fumbled the kickoff return leading to another Saints touchdown.
It felt like the breaks were starting to fall off, and that this would be another classic Raiders collapse, that we have been accustomed to over the last two decades. The Saints led 27-16 early in the fourth quarter. Las Vegas didn’t panic. Instead, the Raiders scored 19 unanswered points to close the game, while the defense forced four New Orleans turnovers in the final quarter. That is the sort of sequence that has been conspicuously absent from too many Raiders seasons.
Against New Orleans, the Raiders gave up 381 yards and allowed Saints quarterback Tyler Shough to throw for 255 yards and four touchdowns. Yet they still won by eight because they created four turnovers and made the critical plays late. The Raiders showed they can win on the road when things don’t go according to plan. It’s not perfection. It’s resilience. Resilience is often a better indicator of organizational change than an early-season record by itself.
It is obviously too early to call Las Vegas one of the NFL’s elite teams. Three games is a tiny sample, and the Raiders still have to prove they can maintain this level against the league’s best over an entire season. But the early statistical profile is difficult to dismiss. Quarterback Kirk Cousins has completed 67.4% of his passes for 661 yards, nine touchdowns, and three interceptions through three games, producing a 107.2 passer rating. Against New Orleans alone, he went 22-of-33 for 248 yards and three touchdowns without throwing an interception. The defense has also provided a foundation. Entering Week three, Las Vegas had allowed an opposing passer rating of just 63.2, second-best in the NFL behind Seattle’s 59.0. That combination matters.
Vegas aren’t simply winning shootouts. They’re getting quarterback play, generating takeaways and finding ways to win games that aren’t clean. Against New Orleans, the Saints actually held advantages in total yardage and time of possession. Las Vegas won anyway. That is precisely the kind of statistical contradiction that can reveal a team’s personality.
The Coaching has been remarkable. The move to hire Klint Kubiak is looking like a genius move from General Manager John Spytek. Kubiak has revamped the Raiders offensive line, that was historically bad last year. Also Kubiak has brought over his stellar play calling from Seattle, and has transformed the Raiders offense. We also can’t ignore the draft picks and free agent acquisitions the Raiders made over the offseason. Tyler Linderbaum has been fantastic and the Raiders are getting production from rookies such as Hezekiah Masses. The most impactful acquisition may have been on the defensive end. How good has Nakobe Dean been? Nakobe Dean might be playing like the best middle linebacker in the NFL. A national champion with Georgia, and super bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles, Dean has brought his championship pedigree to the Raiders organization. Through three games Dean has 22 tackles and 3 forced fumbles.
The contrast with 2025 is particularly striking. The Raiders needed an entire season to reach three victories last year. They have reached that number before the calendar has even turned to October this time around. Of course, a three-game comparison isn’t enough to establish that the Raiders have permanently transformed their organization. But it does demonstrate how dramatically different the early trajectory is.
The difference isn’t simply a new quarterback or a new head coach. It’s the apparent expectation that winning is now the standard rather than a surprise. Klint Kubiak is in his first season as a head coach after serving as an offensive coordinator, and Cousins brings 38 years of age and extensive NFL experience to a roster that also contains young cornerstone players such as Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty. That mixture is important. The Raiders aren’t asking their young players to carry an entire franchise while simultaneously learning how to win. They have veterans capable of absorbing some of that responsibility. That brings us to perhaps the most intriguing consequence of this 3-0 start.
The Raiders selected Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick, and there was always going to be enormous pressure to see him on the field. But Mendoza hasn’t taken a snap yet. Suddenly, that may be a feature rather than a problem. The Raiders entered the season with Cousins as their starting quarterback, and through three games he has given the organization exactly what it needed: stability, efficiency and production. The Raiders’ perfect start means there is no immediate football emergency demanding that Mendoza be thrown into the lineup before he’s ready. That is an enormous luxury for an organization developing a No. 1 overall quarterback.
Instead of asking, How quickly can we get Mendoza onto the field? The Raiders can ask a much better question. What environment gives Mendoza the best chance to succeed when he eventually becomes the quarterback? Those are two very different approaches. If the Raiders were 0-3 and struggling offensively, the conversation surrounding Mendoza would inevitably become louder. Every incomplete pass by the starter would create another argument for the rookie. Every loss would create pressure to accelerate his timeline.
At 3-0, that urgency is dramatically reduced. Mendoza can learn. He can practice. He can watch Cousins operate an NFL offense. He can absorb Kubiak’s system without having to carry the expectations of an entire franchise immediately. Perhaps most importantly, the Raiders can evaluate his development without allowing the team’s short-term record to dictate the timetable. That’s what organizational stability looks like.
The Las Vegas Raiders are off to promising start that bodes will for the present and the future. The Raiders play the Chiefs this weekend, battling for first place in the division. This is the first game of a very challenging four game stretch among the NFL’s elite. Regardless of what happens this year the Raiders have to feel like things are heading in the right direction.
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