Scott Gulbransen
The Las Vegas Raiders officially begin their 2026 offseason program on Tuesday. No pads. No live reps. No, Fernando Mendoza is not taking a snap in Silver and Black yet. Just meetings, strength and conditioning work, and rehabilitation for players coming back from injury.
Sounds boring, right?
It’s not.
What happens in those first days, specifically how Klint Kubiak runs them, will tell us more about the direction of this franchise than any free agent signing or mock draft projection. Culture doesn’t start at training camp. It doesn’t start at the draft. It starts right now, in a building in Henderson, Nevada, with a first-year head coach trying to establish something this organization has lacked for a very long time: a consistent identity.
Kubiak has a chance this week to set the tone for everything that follows. How he uses it matters.
Meetings Are Where Culture Is Built — Or Broken
Phase One is essentially a classroom phase. Players are in the building, they’re getting their bodies right and they’re sitting in meeting rooms. For Kubiak, that’s actually an opportunity, not a limitation.
Every new coaching staff faces the same challenge in Year 1: players are coming in with the habits, the tendencies, and frankly, the baggage of whoever came before them (ahem, Pete Carroll!). The Raiders have had enough coaching transitions in recent years that some of these veterans have seen this movie before. They know how to nod their heads in meetings and wait to see if the new guy is actually different. Three coaches in three years will do that to a player.
Klint Kubiak has to be actually different.
That means the messaging in those rooms this week can’t be generic. It can’t be “we’re going to work hard and hold each other accountable” boilerplate. Raider Nation has heard that. The players in that building have heard it. What they haven’t heard, and what this organization hasn’t had in years, is a clear, specific, non-negotiable vision for how this team is going to operate. Not just offensively. Not just schematically. Culturally.
This is Kubiak’s chance to draw that line in the sand before a single ball is thrown.
Maxx Crosby Sets the Tone If Kubiak Empowers Him to Do It
Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: Maxx Crosby’s presence in that building this week is as important as anything Kubiak says.
Crosby’s trade to Baltimore was voided. He’s a Raider. And whether Kubiak fully understands it yet, Crosby is the most important cultural asset he has. Not because of his pass rush numbers, though those speak for themselves, but because of what Crosby represents to every player walking through that door.
He chose to stay. He could have forced his way out. He didn’t.
That matters enormously in a locker room environment where players are watching to see who actually believes in what’s being built in Vegas. If Kubiak is smart, he’s leaning on Crosby in those early meetings. Not in a manufactured, “let’s make the star happy” way — but in a genuine acknowledgment that veteran leadership and coaching staff vision have to operate in the same direction, or neither one works.
A coaching staff that sidelines its own culture carriers in Year 1 is a coaching staff that’s already behind.
What Kubiak’s Approach Says About His Leadership Style
New head coaches fall into two camps with the early offseason program. Some treat Phase One like a formality, like getting bodies in the building, checking the compliance boxes, and saving the real installation for OTAs and training camp. Others treat it as the foundation.
Given everything John Spytek and the Raiders have built around this offseason, Klint Kubiak can’t afford to treat this as a formality. He has a voluntary veteran minicamp running April 20-22, three days before the draft kicks off in Pittsburgh. That minicamp, combined with the first two weeks of Phase One, gives Kubiak roughly three weeks to establish the relational equity he’ll need when real competition starts.
Three weeks isn’t long. But it’s enough to show players what kind of head coach you are. Whether he knows their names before you know their snap counts, whether you walk the practice facility the same way, whether cameras are rolling or not, whether the standards you preach are standards you actually enforce.
Those things get noticed. They get talked about. They filter down from the veterans to the younger players faster than any scheme does.
All Eyes on Kubiak and Tone He Sets
Tuesday is the start of something. Whether it’s the start of something real. Will it be a culture shift that actually sticks in Las Vegas or not? That depends on what Klint Kubiak decides these early, quiet, unglamorous weeks are actually for.
The Raiders have had plenty of big moments and bold declarations. What they’ve been missing is the foundation underneath all of it.
Phase One starts Tuesday. The foundation gets laid now.
Scott Gulbransen is the Chief Editor of our Silver & Black Today Las Vegas Raiders community, a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the host of Silver & Black Today on 101.5 KDAWN in Las Vegas.
