The Las Vegas Raiders had their worst campaign in recent memory during the 2024 season. Despite making massive upgrades this offseason throughout the organization, they are still considered the bottom dwellers in the AFC West.
A major component of this is that the other three teams in the division all retained a majority of the players that helped them earn 10-win seasons last year. Each of the Broncos, Chargers and Chiefs all made upgrades on paper as well to try and offset the improvements that the Raiders made.
With the NFL schedule release just around the corner, the league is doing the Silver and Black no favors, as usual. They leaked several games before the official release on Wednesday evening, and the NFL made sure to let the Raiders know exactly how they stack up compared to their divisonal foes.
NFL lets Raiders know where they stand in AFC West with latest schedule leaks
On Monday, the NFL announced that the Broncos and Chiefs would face off on Christmas Day at Arrowhead Stadium. Other reports have all but confirmed that the Chiefs will also travel to Sao Paolo, Brazil during Week 1 to take on the Chargers, who are the host team.
This means that the league has leaked roughly six games, and the Raiders' AFC West counterparts are being made a focal point to excite the NFL fan base. However, Las Vegas is nowhere to be found in terms of playing select games or being a selling point.
Part of the problem is that the Silver and Black finished fourth place in the division last year, which means that they are playing several teams who finished last in their division as well. Playing four games against the AFC South is not intruiging either, as the teams in that division are either unsuccessful, unpopular or both.
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Las Vegas will hopefully get a favorable schedule this year that includes several primetime games. Last year, the team opened up the season with back-to-back road games against the Harbaugh brothers, and they endured a three-game stretch in which they faced three playoff teams from last year, including two on the road.
The NFL schedule is never kind to the Raiders, and fans should not expect this year to be any different. Luckily, the team's strength of schedule is relatively weak, so there is nothing that the league can do to combat this.
At the end of the day, Las Vegas will have to beat the teams in front of them if they want to accomplish their goals this year. No matter who they play, when the game is or where it takes place, one team has to come out victorious, and Raider Nation hopes that it will be their team.
But that doesn't mean that the fan base wants to wait any longer for the details.