Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek is still just a scout at heart despite his lofty position in the organization.

That’s why it should be no surprise he put himself through a full evaluation of last year’s performance in his first year running a draft room of his own.

The early results are inconclusive. Spytek and his department drafted several players who could have long-term roles with the team, though most of them didn’t get a full complement of snaps as rookies with a coaching staff that stressed competing over development and yet failed on both fronts.

Spytek is still with the team, unlike most of the coaching staff, and has helped put the Raiders in position to be vastly improved, at least on paper.

Now they must nail the draft, starting with likely No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza and continuing on with their nine additional selections this week.

Spytek believes he’s as prepared as he can be, especially after taking notes on both the successes and struggles of his first draft on the job.

“I wrote a lot of things down that I learned in my first year and things that I screwed up in my first year,” he said. “And we’re not going to change too much, but we’ve got some new faces in the draft room with us this year.”

That includes assistant general manager Brian Stark, who was hired just days after last year’s draft.

It gives Spytek a trusted confidante who isn’t afraid to challenge his opinions, the kind of person every effective leader needs by their side.

That dynamic, which was forged working together in Denver more than a decade ago and sharpened as they remained friends through the years, could serve the Raiders well moving forward.

“I think it’s an incredible opportunity that I have here with the relationship I have with (Spytek),” Stark said. “Obviously, he’s the boss and he’ll tell me what he thinks or if he disagrees and I’m not afraid to tell him if I see something different. I think he values that, and I value the relationship, and there’s a trust there that we can have open, honest communication, because there’s going to be (differences of opinions on player evaluations). I may watch different games than he watched during the eval, so we may see the player differently. And you’ve got to have those conversations to kind of find what our truth is on the player. So, you’ve got to have people that want to speak up and give their opinion and then work it out.”

Nobody with the Raiders will say publicly that the organizational structure didn’t work last year. But, come on.

None of it made sense with a coach and a general manager on different timelines.

Dissenting opinions that can be freely shared and worked through to come to a consensus tends to be a great way to come to correct decisions.

But when an organization is trying to balance a long-term rebuild with trying to patch together a competitive team each Sunday, 3-14 happens.

The alignment is so much better now, from Spytek running the front office with a capable team of lieutenants to a young, first-time coach in Klint Kubiak.

It’s far from a guarantee of success. But there is a much better chance.

Spytek said one of the lessons he picked up in his self-scout was that he needed to do a better job delegating.

That seems to be happening.

“Not knowing everybody in the building, having my own vision that I was trying to teach to people about the way that we wanted to do it, how we wanted to build the kind of person we were looking for, I think I tried to do too much,” he said of the draft process. “I think it’s always important to really have great people around you and trust and empower them to do their jobs, to support you as well as they can. And it’s really not about me, it’s about the team and the Raiders and the best decisions. And I’m just very grateful to have a great group of people around me.”

That process will be put to the test on Thursday.

It might work. It might not. But there should at least be a level of confidence that Spytek and his staff are on the same page.

That’s a good start.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.