The Raider Way has risen again.

Klint Kubiak’s arrival has almost instantly transformed the formerly woebegone Las Vegas Raiders into the NFL’s most surprising band of upstarts, emerging from the first three weeks not just unbeaten but one of the league’s most compelling case studies.

The Raiders are playing an attacking style of football, menacing opponents into submission by leaning into the franchise’s long-held core identity on defense and a balanced offense thanks to the return of competent quarterback play from late-career renegade Kirk Cousins.

Anchored by Maxx Crosby playing like a man on a mission, linebacker Nakobe Dean flying to the ball-carrier behind him, and the revelation that is fifth-round rookie cornerback Hezekiah Masses implementing a no-fly zone in the secondary, already pulling down three interceptions and breaking up four passes, the Raiders lead the league in turnover differential, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

They aren’t just punching opponents in the mouth; they’re taking out years of frustration on anyone standing in their way.

They’re also punching above their weight to a 3-0 record and tied atop the AFC West with Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs.

“Clearly Klint Kubiak is improving the team’s on-field performance,” former Raiders CEO and current CBS NFL Analyst Amy Trask tells Between The Hashmarks. “It is my understanding that in addition to improving their on-field performance, he is improving the entire organization, as a whole.”

These 3-0 Raiders, having won as many games as last year’s rudderless operation did all season, are playing an inspired brand of football, reinforcing a culture that seems to be sinking its roots deeper into the desert sand with each passing week.

There is little doubt that these aren’t your younger brother’s Raiders, that there is a clear blueprint that Kubiak has already instilled, from his influence over the front office to the players’ execution on game days.

The biggest questions remain, though, about just how seriously to take Las Vegas, and they are about to be answered in emphatic fashion.

Having made quick work of the Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Chargers, on the road, and in the maelstrom of the Superdome against the equally inspired Saints, while outscoring them 88-54, Kubiak’s Raiders are about to speedrun into the teeth of their schedule.

Sunday afternoon, the Raiders host Andy Reid, Kenneth Walker, Mahomes, and the Chiefs in the game league-wide with arguably the most significant implications to date this season, followed by a trip to Foxboro against the reeling but desperate New England Patriots, before hosting MVP frontrunner and the hyper-balanced and explosive Buffalo Bills in Week 6.

Then, it’s the Los Angeles Rams who come to town the following week.

When you put your head down on the pillow on October 25, it will be abundantly clear just how seriously to take these Raiders the rest of the way.

Before beginning what has the potential to be a season-defining stretch, it’s worth diving into what’s fueling Las Vegas’ early-season surge, which moves are paying the biggest dividends, and just how sustainable their insurgent run towards a playoff berth has the potential to be.

In hindsight, maybe we should have expected a lot of what we’re seeing from these Raiders.

After all, Kubiak fit like a glove, arriving from a Seattle franchise that in so many ways is the modern embodiment of the physical, intimidating characteristics that were the bedrock of Al Davis’ Silver and Black.

Last season’s World Champion Seahawks were one of the most statistically dominant and balanced rosters ever assembled, finishing with the seventh-highest DVOA of all time, while finishing as the NFL’s 11th-ranked rushing offense, eighth-ranked passing attack, and stingiest defense, holding opponents to a meager 17.2 points per game.

That’s quite a blueprint to gaze out into the desert over, and alongside general manager John Spytek, with Tom Brady’s influence over the organization, Kubiak has revitalized an entire franchise while importing a championship culture.

This is one of the more fascinating rosters in the NFL, with the bedrock of some of the league’s most underrated but rising homegrown talent; tight end Brock Bowers, last season’s first-round pick Ashton Jeanty, an All-Pro edge rusher in Maxx Crosby, buttressed by marquee free agent signings like Tyler Linderbaum at center, linebackers Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker, and a draft class that is simultaneously raising the ceiling on what this 2026 team can accomplish and the foundation for what’s to be built over the next decade.

Dean, signed as a free agent after the Philadelphia Eagles opted to let him walk out the door, leads the Raiders with 22 total tackles, off an 11-tackle outburst in New Orleans, and has 1.5 sacks and one pass breakup already.

“Nakobe Dean is the ringleader of their hittin’ party,” NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger tells Between The Hashmarks. “Smacking anyone that has the ball in hand.”

Second-round safety Treydan Stukes muscled his way into a starting job.

Running back Mike Washington is already picking up speed as a complement to Jeanty in the vein of a Kenneth Walker-Zachary Charbonnet power duo in the backfield.

And then there’s fifth-round cornerback Hezekiah Masses.

It’s early, but Masses is already playing like one of the steals of the entire draft.

The 6-foot-1 and 185-pound former Cal standout is tied with Giants safety Jevõn Holland with three interceptions, has produced 11 total tackles, and, according to Pro Football Focus, Masses is holding opposing quarterbacks to a minuscule 43 passer rating when throwing his direction.

“He has lockdown man-to-man cover skills,” Baldinger says of Masses. “Unique ball skills, paired with a linebacker mentality as a tackler.”

Not exactly the kind of matchup a wide receiver hopes to see coming on film.

Stukes has also chipped in 11 total tackles, one pass breakup, and one interception, rounding out one of the rangier and imposing rookie defensive back duos in the league.

Las Vegas has seamlessly, and quickly woven experienced veterans with immediate-impact rookies, with the payoff being a team that’s gaining momentum and playing like it knows it can beat anyone it steps onto the field against.

According to Trask, that’s all by design.

“When someone constructs something,” Trask explains. “Whether it’s a home, a building, anything, a roster, one doesn’t just use only a hammer or only a screwdriver, or only a saw; one uses many tools to help with that construction.

“Similarly, the draft, free agency, and trades are all tools that an organization can use to construct a team, and I think it’s terrific that John is using all the tools available to him.”

Spytek’s free agent haul has elevated what’s possible for Las Vegas this season, both by embodying the culture Kubiak is trying to create and making the big and timely plays in the biggest moments of games.

Crosby is playing some of the best football of his career, after an offseason trade that sent him to the Ravens fell through when Baltimore felt so uncomfortable with the results of his physical that they used it as leverage to back out of the deal and run into the arms of Trey Hendrickson.

What a fortuitous turn of events that turned out to be for Spytek, for Kubiak, for Leonard, for the Raiders, and for Crosby, who has 1.5 sacks, ranks fifth in the league with 17 pressures, and is the heartbeat of the Raiders’ defense right now.

Pro Football Focus points out that the Raiders’ defense ranks second in EPA per play, fifth in yards per play allowed, and second in scoring drive rate.

Where Kubiak’s fingerprints are already all over the operation, though, is the results of the offense he imported with him.

Through three weeks, the Raiders are averaging 29.3 points per game.

Last season, under Chip Kelly and later Greg Olson, Vegas averaged a league-low 14.2.

Bowers, thanks to competent quarterback play from Cousins, is on the trajectory to become the standard-bearer among tight ends, catching 10 of his 13 targets for 116 yards and a touchdown.

“He’s always open,” Baldinger gushed, of Bowers’ early-season production.

In the backfield, the duo of Jeanty and Washington are starting to appear like they’re a mirror Kubiak is holding up to the Seahawks’ backfield he had at his disposal last season.

Freed from Chip Kelly’s misguided attempts to rebuild him all the way down to changing his stance in the backfield, Jeanty has already posted four explosive runs of 10 yards or more, while rushing for 206 yards.

Jeanty’s backfield mate, the unheralded fourth-round rookie out of Arkansas, Washington Jr. has chipped in 102 yards and a touchdown while averaging a whopping 4.07 yards after contact on his 15 carries.

Meanwhile, the rookies Spytek and the front office drafted are merely scratching the surface of their impact, especially with all the pressure (at least for now) removed from playing Fernando Mendoza, allowing the Heisman winner to develop as the team stacks victories this season.

If Kirk Cousins was supposed to be the training wheels; for the roster, by getting the rest of the offense up to speed before tossing the keys over to Mendoza, and for the No. 1 overall pick, as a mentor in the meeting rooms and on the practice field, it’s starting to look not only like Spytek instead bought the entire electric bike, but that Mendoza might not even get his chance to ride it until 2027.

None of Las Vegas’ new arrivals have made more of an impact on this season’s fast start or are cut more from the Raiders’ mold than Cousins.

There’s a long history of veteran journeymen quarterbacks finding success in the Silver and Black.

Ken Stabler won a Super Bowl at age 31.

Jim Plunkett won a ring at age 33, and hoisted the Lombardi a second time at 37.

At age 37, Rich Gannon guided the Raiders to the Super Bowl.

It’s way too early and presumptuous to suggest that, at age 38, Kirk Cousins is about to follow in Stabler’s, Plunkett’s, and Gannon’s footsteps.

But, he has provided stability and steady explosiveness to an offense and at a position that lacked both for the past several seasons.

Through three weeks, Cousins is completing 67.4 percent of his passes for 661 yards, nine touchdowns to just three interceptions, on his way to a 107.2 passer rating.

Cousins’ success, while possibly the most important piece of the Raiders’ puzzle on offense, is just one piece of a unit that’s definitively on the rise.

“I think when you add four experienced veterans up the gut, at offensive coordinator, quarterback, and a pair of inside linebackers,” a source close to Cousins tells Between The Hashmarks. “You get guys involved in every play that also provide great leadership.

“The result is a team that competes for 60 minutes, and plays with confidence in the fourth quarter.”

In Week 3’s thrilling fourth-quarter comeback, Cousins was the cool captain navigating a November Gale, steering the Raiders by completing all four of his passing attempts in the final frame for 45 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

It was the capstone to a flawless 248-yard and three-touchdown outing by Cousins in New Orleans.

Week 3 was the kind of contest that lesser Raider teams would have wilted late, but with Cousins at the helm, Las Vegas never wavered, never panicked, but kept fighting through the echo of the final whistle and flew home undefeated.

It’s hard to imagine that even Kubiak expected this.

What, with a training camp and preseason competition that saw the veteran only marginally outplay Mendoza, who passed for 240 yards with one touchdown and an interception, with the weight of all the franchise has invested and tied to him as the No. 1 overall pick?

But Cousins is seemingly the embodiment of a mentor and of consistency, leading the charge for a team that finds itself suddenly in a position to make a charge at the playoffs far sooner than anyone envisioned.

“As I’ve shared a number of times,” Trask says. “I like the organization’s addition of Kirk Cousins for a number of reasons, one of which is that I believe he will do all he can to help Fernando learn and develop.

“Relatedly, I like the decision not to start immediately. Kirk is helping the team win now, and helping Fernando just as Alex Smith did for the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.”

What Cousins is really doing, and arguably his most valuable contribution, is buying everyone involved at every level of the organization time.

Time to allow Mendoza to marinate on the sideline.

Kubiak, the time and credibility to install his offense the right way.

And, Spytek, the breathing room one might not expect after a 3-14 finish and a hiring that went as bust as Carroll did in spectacularly disappointing fashion.

No one’s job is at stake.

Nor is anyone’s seat heating up to where anyone feels like it’s necessary to see the prized rookie step in and save their job before he’s ready to play.

The Raiders just might be straddling the enviable line of winning while building, and Cousins is arguably the biggest factor.

We’re about to find out if these Raiders can travel.

If their brand of football can survive against some of the league’s most battle-tested, talented, and deep rosters.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Crosby told reporters postgame in New Orleans. “It’s early in September. But just the connection in the locker room, everyone playing for each other. It’s as simple as that. I think guys enjoy being around each other.

“Guys enjoy putting in the work together and finding solutions instead of complaining or looking for an out. It’s just everyone’s trying to get on the same page and towards one common goal, and I think that’s been a big part of why we’re having success early on.”

Sunday against the Chiefs is a massive first test, and an even bigger opportunity for validation.

Dating back to 2020, the Raiders are just 2-10 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

However, never over that time span, and really rarely over the past decade, have the stakes been anywhere near as high as they are with the early-season AFC West lead on the line.

If the Raiders are going to be taken seriously as contenders from here, it starts not just with Leonard’s group that is currently forcing an obscene amount of takeaways (Las Vegas boasting a plus-five turnover differential), leveraging their opportunistic nature and the chaos Crosby is creating up front to make life miserable for Mahomes.

Can this defense slam the door on Kenneth Walker, who has already rushed for 360 yards and scored five total touchdowns while averaging 5.5 yards per carry?

Will Bowers, Jack Becht, and Trey Tucker be able to keep the fireworks show going against Steve Spagnuolo’s defense and a secondary that’s holding opponents to just 178.3 passing yards as the No. 5-ranked passing defense in the league?

Stalwart center Tyler Linderbaum has been as advertised, after inking a three-year deal worth $60 million guaranteed as the Raiders’ signature offseason addition.

Linderbaum has yet to allow a sack, while surrendering just two pressures.

He’s also yet to face Aaron Donald, or a swarming Bills defense, or Spagnuolo’s portfolio of exotic blitzes, stunts, and disguised pressure packages.

There’s a chance that Myles Garrett will be back by the time the Raiders square off with the Rams at the end of this gauntlet.

Vegas is most certainly going to need to have an answer for Bills edge rusher Greg Rousseau, who is leading an all-out assault on the Defensive Player of the Year award and Garrett’s sack record, with six through the first three weeks.

How will Cousins hold up against that? 

Will Cousins’ 10th-best Expected Points Added (EPA) in the league carry against a significant uptick in competition?

Those answers will come in due time.

For now, it’s worth standing back and appreciating what’s being built here, what already has been, like the Vegas strip that once rose from the desert flatlands.

Already, Kubiak and Spytek haven’t just pulled off a quick-fix turnaround. They’ve given a fractured franchise its soul back, its identity back.

Whether these Raiders exit October as genuine AFC contenders or were merely a fun September sideshow will be decided over the next 28 days, but it’s almost already bigger than that.

For the first time in a long time, the Silver and Black aren’t waiting for the future; they’re building it in the present, by leaning into the DNA of their championship past.