PICK: Las Vegas Raiders
The four-win Raiders entered this offseason with a long to-do list. Perhaps their biggest move was hiring Pete Carroll, who previously revived a franchise and turned it into a perennial winner. Reuniting with his former coach to take care of “unfinished business,” Geno Smith is an upgrade over both Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew. Also, the Raiders landed one of the top players in this year’s draft in running back Ashton Jeanty. They added young talent to the WR corps in second-rounder Jack Bech and fourth-rounder Dont’e Thornton. Smith should have no shortage options with this young group, led by all-world tight end Brock Bowers. At least on paper, this looks far from the offense that ranked 29th in scoring and 27th in yards a year ago.
The defense looks much improved, too. The Raiders are hoping for the healthy return of Christian Wilkins, who was limited to five games last season due to a foot injury that currently has him on the PUP list. They signed Germaine Pratt, Elandon Roberts, Jeremy Chinn and Eric Stokes in free agency.
If you’re not yet a believer in a Vegas turnaround in 2025, I’ll leave you with a comment Carroll made earlier in the week:
“We are going to win a bunch of games. I can’t even imagine anything else. I’ve been winning 10 games a year for 20 years or something. I mean, what are my expectations? We are going to win a bunch, and I don’t care who hears that.”