The Las Vegas Raiders ended their 2025 season with a 14-12 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, yet the win did not cost them the top pick in the 2026 NFL draft. The Raiders secured the No. 1 overall selection thanks to other results falling their way, a silver lining in a season defined by persistent losing.
Coach Pete Carroll, who took over a struggling roster, acknowledged the difficulty of the year. “What have I learned? How much I don’t like it. Yeah. Disappointed as I could be. I’ve never even dreamed it would be like this,” Carroll said. He praised his players for not quitting, adding, “These guys will continue to work and they’ll stay with it. It’s just because they don’t want to accept it.”
The game itself was an offensive struggle. The Raiders scored all their points through four field goals and a safety, never reaching the end zone. Despite the lackluster performance, Carroll insisted the team never intentionally tanked. “I don’t for a second believe coaches or players purposefully went into tank mode,” he said. The Raiders sat key players like Maxx Crosby and Brock Bowers in recent weeks due to injury, a move widely seen as prioritizing future draft position.
With the top pick, Las Vegas is expected to target a franchise quarterback, with Miami’s Fernando Mendoza emerging as a leading candidate. The Raiders finished 3-14, a record that secured the worst mark in the league. Carroll, whose tenure has been dubbed “an experiment that didn’t work,” remains focused on building through the draft. “They want to only focus on the next opportunity that’s coming up, which is kind of how we think and that something good’s just about to happen,” he said.
