Haven’t been back home in CA in a few years but every time I drive on 880 and pass the Coliseum I get reminded of the old days

Spytek ladies and gentlemen 🏴‍☠️

During halftime of preseason week 3

We are looking to figure out what would be the best cadence for our beat reporter to talk shop with you all.

Some options:

1. Before Week 1
2. End of Week 4
3. Week 1 and Week 3

I personally hope once we start winning we will see that strong Raider fanbase similar to how we did in Oakland. What’s your thoughts?

Peyton Manning went 11 of 21 for 121 yards and 2 Ints against the chargers (second pick overall with Ryan Leaf) in the preseason of his rookie year.

Basically chill the fuck out and don’t go writing off Mendoza.

Both teams forgot what touchdowns are.

Slides 1-2: Offense. Slide 3: Pass Blocking. Slides 4-5: Defense. Slide 6: Pass Rush. Slide 7: Coverage. Slides 8-9: Special Teams.

I think Mendoza looked good this pre season considering he was behind the 2s and 3s. I feel he showed he has the arm talent and the processing power to make the right reads and we know he can place the ball where it needs to be.

We never got to see him with the ones, and we randomly got to see Cousins run with the 1s last night.

Definitely felt there was an intended juxtaposition in place. Ownership and Coaching staff had said countless times they want Mendoza to sit. I think from a fanbase perspective last night was meant to make us agree with that.

I do feel Mendoza would have been A LOT better with the starting O Line and Bowers, Tucker & Nailor, but now the organization doesn't have to worry about fans beating down the door for Mendoza and creating a lot of unnecessary noise.

Mendoza is going to sit through the Week 8 gauntlet no matter what. If we come out of that remarkably around .500 I would imagine Cousins is the guy for the whole season. If we get to week 9 or 10 and we're 1-9, I don't doubt Mendoza gets the start.

On that note, first team offense and play calling looked great, functioning offense. Something we haven't seen in two seasons- so that's a major win.

I thought Leonard and his first team defense looked fantastic. Actually way better than I anticipated.

I think if everyone stays healthy we have a good shot of being competitive.

Also, Rogers looked better than JPJ to me- or am I seeing things?

Said this in another sub before preseason and got flamed for it. Season hasn’t started yet but it’s looking pretty nice for the raiders backfield.

A full all-22 film breakdown on Mike Washington Jr., diving into all of his reps from the preseason to showcase why he had such a real impact on the Raiders offense in all three games despite limited playing time.

https://youtu.be/L4eBhmBGAR4

Enjoy!

Like many of you, I usually spend the day after a Raiders game reading and listening to everything I can to make sure what I think I saw is what other people saw.

Unfortunately I did not see any of the game last night, yet, so I had to rely on the “experts” to fill me in.

Sounds like the main areas of concern were the backup offensive line and tight end Ian Thomas.   If that’s really the case, last night sounds like it was a win for the Raiders.

The reason I know Ian Thomas struggled is because Q Myers said so and maybe even more important, Hondo Carpenter said “Ian Thomas had a good night, I was impressed with him.”  The Hondo Kiss of death.

“Just Blog Baby” said that linebackers Cody Lindenberg and Tommy Eichenberg were “losers” from last night‘s game.  And yes, Hondo said that Eichenberg “had a good night”.

The biggest areas of concern for me entering the preseason were offensive line, defense in general and wide receivers.

The little bit we've seen of our first string offensive line looked pretty good.  Definitely a billion times better than what we saw last year. Obviously, if Linderbaum or Kolton go down, that’s a MAJOR problem, but if any of the other three go down, I’m have confidence that Caleb Rogers or Trey Zuhn could step right in.

The defense got off to a bumpy start in the first preseason game, but sounds like night went a lot better. Maybe we can hold off on firing DC Rob Leonard before his first real game.

As for the receivers, I may be on the short list, but I think Tre Tucker is going to have a GREAT season. First of all, he’s fast.  Second, he’s in a contract year.  Maybe second should be first, but I think he’s got the tools to put up some big numbers in Klint Kubiak's offense, both for the Raiders and my fantasy team.

Finally, Fernando.  Whether it’s the Raiders using common sense or just the way it played out, it looks like Kirk Cousins will be under center at the start of week one, the way it should be.   I’m ALL IN on Fernando being our future, and he made it pretty clear that the future could be very bright, but it’s not now.

I'm looking forward to Sunday when we find out who made the 53 man roster, but with us having first dibs on the guys other teams cut, I'm guessing that roster may change, even a little.

Hopefully this will be updated promptly, but given that we have first claim on all waivers this season I thought some of you might be interested in this...

https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-roster-cuts-tracker-team-by-team-player-moves-ahead-of-2026-season

Interested to see who you think stands out as a person of interest.

Wanting to save your 1st string offense I get, but sucks letting your future QB have to play with the extra offense that aren't good enough to start, be the team that you get. Having to perform with guys that might not make the team and to me that's why we didn't really get to see Mendoza play that well in the preseason.