{"id":869757,"date":"2026-04-19T08:27:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869757\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:27:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:27:31","slug":"las-vegas-raiders-draft-should-be-helped-by-gm-john-spyteks-lessons-learned-last-year-adam-hill-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869757\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Raiders draft should be helped by GM John Spytek\u2019s lessons learned last year | Adam Hill | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> general manager John Spytek is still just a scout at heart despite his lofty position in the organization.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it should be no surprise he put himself through a full evaluation of last year\u2019s performance in his first year running a draft room of his own.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t get a full complement of snaps as rookies with a coaching staff that stressed competing over development and yet failed on both <\/a>fronts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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

Now they must nail the draft, starting with likely No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza<\/a> and continuing on with their nine additional selections this week.<\/p>\n

Spytek believes he\u2019s as prepared as he can be, especially after taking notes on both the successes and struggles of his first draft on the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote a lot of things down that I learned in my first year and things that I screwed up in my first year,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not going to change too much, but we\u2019ve got some new faces in the draft room with us this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes assistant general manager Brian Stark, who was hired just days after last year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

It gives Spytek a trusted confidante who isn\u2019t afraid to challenge his opinions, the kind of person every effective leader needs by their side.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s an incredible opportunity that I have here with the relationship I have with (Spytek),\u201d Stark said. \u201cObviously, he\u2019s the boss and he\u2019ll tell me what he thinks or if he disagrees and I\u2019m not afraid to tell him if I see something different. I think he values that, and I value the relationship, and there\u2019s a trust there that we can have open, honest communication, because there\u2019s 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\u2019ve got to have those conversations to kind of find what our truth is on the player. So, you\u2019ve got to have people that want to speak up and give their opinion and then work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nobody with the Raiders will say publicly that the organizational structure didn\u2019t work last year. But, come on.<\/p>\n

None of it made sense with a coach and a general manager on different timelines.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 <\/a>Kubiak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s far from a guarantee of success. But there is a much better chance.<\/p>\n

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

That seems to be happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot 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,\u201d he said of the draft process. \u201cI think it\u2019s 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\u2019s really not about me, it\u2019s about the team and the Raiders and the best decisions. And I\u2019m just very grateful to have a great group of people around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That process will be put to the test on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a good start.<\/p>\n

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @AdamHillLVRJ<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek is still just a scout at heart despite his lofty position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-869757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-lasvegas","12":"tag-lasvegasraiders","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116430428221702880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}