Welcome to the fifth part of a thirty-two-part series: Reading the NFL Offseason Tea Leaves. Fantasy football tasseography is deeply rooted in predicting future fantasy fortunes. Some of the team tea cups we'll be looking into may be larger than others. The smallest of cups may have the most alluring blends of offensive weaponry, or be set to bloom after a long steep. This series will aid in your approach to Redraft and Dynasty leagues by bringing you up to date on:

• Free Agency
  • Re-signings, additions, who signed elsewhere, and what it means for fantasy.
• NFL Draft
  • What can we decipher about the direction a team is headed in based on their draft selections?
• Coaching Changes
  • Who's in, who's out, and how do the coaching philosophies translate to fantasy production?
• Fantasy Fortunes
  • What does this all mean for your fantasy football drafts?

Like tasseography, the arrangement of these three sections will vary as we digest each team's offseasons and see how the offensive pieces settle. Each article will interpret what each NFL team has told us about its future plans based on what it's done since its 2025 season ended. 

Reading the Las Vegas Raiders' 2026 Offseason

Draft Day Additions

Heisman Trophy Winner and National Champion Fernando Mendoza was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders with the first overall pick. When he arrived in Vegas, he was greeted by fellow QB Kirk Cousins, who has already been anointed the team's starting QB to start the season.

In addition, the team drafted RB Mike Washington in the fourth round. While he is likely to back up Ashton Jeanty, he may end up stealing more snaps than expected with Kubiak calling the shots. Last year, Kubiak's offense had a 55/45 split between Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet. In that split, Walker compiled more than 1,000 rushing yards, and Charbonnet went for over 700. Washington had built quite the hype train coming out of the Senior Bowl and the NFL Combine, with many analysts ranking him as the No. 2 RB in the draft class.

Coaching Changes

The Raiders grabbed the best offensive mind available for their head coaching position when they hired former Seattle Seahawks Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak. Andrew Janocko joins Kubiak as the Raiders' Offensive Coordinator. Janocko was with Kubiak in Seattle last year as Seattle's QB coach and previously served as the QB coach for the Saints, Bears, and Vikings dating back to 2021. We should be optimistic about the new coaching staff's ability to develop Fernando Mendoza, and for the stability they will bring to a Raiders organization that was in disarray last year.

Free Agency Signings

The Raiders added Jalen Nailor to their receiving corps during free agency. Nailor had a mini-breakout year operating as the Vikings' WR3 in 2025. He will compete with Tre Tucker and Jack Bech for the WR1 role on the offense. One of these WRs will be fantasy relevant as a WR3 in 2026, and my money is currently on Nailor.

Center Tyler Linderbaum also joined the Raiders in free agency. While he may not directly score fantasy points, he will vastly improve the offensive line. Linderbaum will be the leader of the line, helping to identify defensive schemes and ensuring everyone knows their blocking assignments. Expect a boost in offensive production partially due to Linderbaum's presence.

Fantasy Fortunes

This is an ascending offense, and we should be buying pieces of it as dynasty fantasy managers. Brock Bowers and Jeanty will serve as the engines of this offense, and a majority of the volume should be funneled into these two. Cousins might be the QB depth your roster needs to weather the storm, and any late-round rookie pick from any year probably gets a deal done.

Mendoza has all of the tools to become a high-end QB in the league, and is deceptively fast when he turns into a rusher. The chemistry between the rookie and the vet couldn't be better - we should be excited about Mendoza's landing spot in dynasty. With improvements across every position group, it can only spell good things for fantasy.

Expect this offense to sustain drives more often and create more scoring opportunities for players. Nailor, Tucker and Bech are all low-risk, high-reward WRs to target this offseason and will likely draw flex appeal during bye weeks at a minimum. There's a shot this Raiders team provides us with a QB2, RB1, a couple WR3s, and a TE1 for fantasy football.

Cam White is a Senior Analyst & Host at Optimus Fantasy. You can find more of his work on our YouTube channel, and make sure to follow him on Bluesky.