The Las Vegas Raiders were an exciting proposition going into 2025. Tom Brady was involved, Pete Carroll was back on an NFL sideline, and Geno Smith seemed a safe and reliable choice at QB. Boy, were we wrong.
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We’ll put our hands up. We thought the Raiders would be a force to be reckoned with last season, and that could not have been further from what ended up happening. Carroll is now gone, and Smith led the NFL in picks (17) and sacks (55). Brady will maintain his important role in the franchise. But whether that’s even a positive after last year’s debacle is anyone’s guess. Vegas needs someone to right a ship that has been off course for over two decades now.
Who better for the job than the guy who just turned the nation’s worst college football program in history into the No. 1 team in the country and a National Championship finalist: Indiana’s Curt Cignetti. With Vegas likely to take Cignetti’s QB, Fernando Mendoza, with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, David Carr wondered why Raiders owner Mark Davis wouldn’t at least take a swing at Cignetti.
“What would keep [Raiders owner] Mark [Davis] from just picking the phone up and being like, ‘Hey Curt Cignetti, I know you like Indiana, but if we’re gonna go get a quarterback, and you think Mendoza’s the quarterback … would you like to come coach him with the Las Vegas Raiders?'” asked Carr. “Like that might be worth a phone call, right? At least a call. Maybe he likes it at Indiana, but maybe he wants to be a head coach in the NFL.”
It would be quite a coup to acquire both the starting QB and the head coach of the likely National Champion Indiana Hoosiers. But an exceedingly unlikely one considering Cignetti’s old school demeanour, paired with the fact that he just signed a major extension with the Hoosiers.
David’s brother, Derek Carr, who hosts the podcast alongside him, was a longtime Raider. And so he has strong feelings about his former team and the direction they’re going. While he agrees Cignetti is worth a phone call (no matter how likely fruitless it may be), he’s not so sure the Raiders should draft Mendoza at No. 1 overall… or even take a QB with that pick… or even keep that pick altogether.
“I’m all against [drafting a QB]. I don’t know if they’re ready for that,” Carr admitted. “There are so many holes. … There’s no young quarterback that you’re just gonna insert—unless they fix other things. If you just go out there and say, ‘The quarterback is coming, and he’s gonna fix it.’ Geno can read coverage, Aidan knows coverage. There’s no young guy that’s gonna know more ball than them now.”
The Carr brothers pointed out one major hole the Raiders must plug before going QB: the offensive line. As they pointed out, Mendoza plays behind an offensive line so good that one of them was named the MVP of a Bowl game. Seriously.
However, the Raiders have arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL. Not only did they fail miserably to open holes for the Raiders’ top 2025 pick, Ashton Jeanty—Vegas had an NFL-worst 3.6 yards per carry—they allowed Geno Smith to be sacked an NFL-high 55 times during the year.
The best route for the Raiders might be to stick with Geno and Aidan O’Connell for one more year, trade that top pick for a bevy of draft capital, and use that capital to build up the ship around the QB. Specifically, “the trenches”, as the Carr brothers strongly suggested.
Then, in 2027, they can go get their guy.
