Getting to the playoffs is always the goal, but heading into the 2026 NFL season, it wasn't the goal for the Las Vegas Raiders. John Spytek and Klint Kubiak run a young front office, coaching staff and roster, and the name of the game this season was improvement and building for the future, it seemed.
But a 3-0 start to the campaign immediately put the postseason on everybody's mind. And while a four-game skid dimmed that excitement for a bit, the Raiders got back in the win column on Sunday against the New York Jets and are suddenly 4-4 as the trade deadline approaches. It is not over at all.
And while the AFC is chock full of great teams, Las Vegas is slowly crawling back to relevance in the playoff picture after Week 8. Here is where things in the conference stand for the Silver and Black as they embark on the back half of their schedule.
Updated AFC Playoff Picture after Week 8 has Raiders crawling back
1. Buffalo Bills (6-1)
2. Denver Broncos (6-2)
3. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2)
4. Jacksonville Jaguars (5-2)
5. Kansas City Chiefs (5-2)
6. Cincinnati Bengals (5-2)
7. New England Patriots (5-3)
----------------------------------------------
8. Cleveland Browns (5-3)
9. Las Vegas Raiders (4-4)
10. Baltimore Ravens (4-4)
11. Houston Texans (2-5)
12. New York Jets (2-6)
13. Indianapolis Colts (2-6)
14. Miami Dolphins (1-6)
15. Tennessee Titans (1-7)
16. Los Angeles Chargers (0-7)
The Raiders owned a spot in the postseason through the first five weeks of the schedule, but they dropped out after a Week 6 loss and plummeted even further after Week 7. But they moved up a spot after Week 8, leapfrogging the Baltimore Ravens, whose QB situation will only see them drop further.
Las Vegas is sitting somewhat pretty, too, as a decent chasm exists between them and the No. 11 seed, but just one game theoretically separates them from sneaking in for that final Wild Card spot. Tiebreakers will matter, of course, but the Silver and Black are right there.
Going back to the top, the Bills had the fortune of not playing this week, so they got to watch the Chiefs lose and ascend to the top. If they are, in fact, the AFC's top team, the Raiders should feel great about taking them down to the wire.
Denver has risen once again, as they downed Kansas City to regain the AFC West throne. The way that they win will never make sense to me, but they just keep doing it, so perhaps I am missing something. Or it is the greatest run of luck and good fortune that we have ever seen in this league.
Pittsburgh is ever-solid and took down the Browns on Sunday to swap with them, just as the Broncos did with the Chiefs. And the Jaguars are just a good football team, as they blew out the Colts 42-7. They should run away with that division.
The Chiefs have now lost two straight, but they have an easy stretch coming up, so they should be able to regain momentum. It'll be interesting to watch them and Denver compete for the division title, but maybe Las Vegas isn't completely out of it, either.
Cincinnati is hard to figure out, as it took overtime for them to scrape by the lowly Titans. They don't really have an impressive win on their résumé, so perhaps they are pretenders. But they don't exactly have a difficult schedule the rest of the way, so we may not find out until the postseason.
New England also barely got by the Dolphins this week, but they are entering an absolutely brutal stretch of the calendar. Hopefully, the Patriots can drop a handful and not be in the Wild Card race with the Raiders, because they own the tiebreaker.
Cleveland is showing signs of its old self, and Deshaun Watson is out this week, so Shedeur Sanders will have the reins. And the Ravens are doomed without Lamar Jackson or Tyler Huntley under center. I could even see them calling it quits on this year in a tough AFC North and selling at the deadline.
Houston is the one team at the bottom that I see having potential life, as they are supremely talented, but the Colts, Jets, Dolphins, Titans and Chargers are lifeless. The Jets, Dolphins and Titans can at least compete, but the Colts are having a fire sale and getting blown out.
If the Chargers are going to continue to get blown out, they should probably do the same.
Add us as a preferred source on Google