The current landscape of the AFC West is brutal for a rebuilding team like the Las Vegas Raiders. Yes, the Silver and Black can get ahead of schedule by playing against some of the league's best, but the hope is that the Raiders' young players don't lose their confidence or nerve early in their careers.
Outside of the division, the 2026 schedule isn't all that favorable for Las Vegas, either. It was a tough draw for the Raiders having to play the NFC West and AFC East this year, but at least they have a fourth-place schedule for their remaining games, which should give them a leg up in the AFC West.
Right?
Apparently not. The way that the calendar was structured for Las Vegas this coming fall is not only hard for the team to overcome, but puts them at an even more stark disadvantage than their divisional foes, who have already been considered big winners of the 2026 schedule reveal.
Las Vegas Raiders' AFC West foes given favorable 2026 schedules by NFL
NFL.com's Nick Shook listed the most favorable schedules in the league for the upcoming season, and of course, the 14-3, division-winning, No. 1 seed in the AFC Denver Broncos got an advantageous draw, as if they really needed it.
"After opening the season with a prime-time date against the rival Chiefs in Kansas City, the Broncos will be happy to host most of their strongest non-division opponents in Denver," Shook noted. "The Jaguars, Rams, Seahawks and Bills are all due to visit the Mile High City. The Broncos’ schedule is remarkably balanced, with no more than two road games in consecutive weeks. If they can use their home-field advantage to score wins over 2025 playoff qualifiers in the Jaguars and Rams in September, they should make it out of the first month in a manageable spot, although things do get tougher with road contests against the 49ers and Chargers. Perhaps most importantly, Denver's two December road games come against the Jets and Raiders. The Broncos close things out with a challenging trio of matchups that includes home games against the Bills and Chargers, but if any team is well positioned to finish strong, it's the reigning AFC West champs."
Now, in fairness, playing against the Raiders is considered an easy matchup. Every other team in the AFC West has that luxury, other than Las Vegas. But the schedule makers helped the Broncos in ways that they could, giving them easy matchups at the year's end and no impossible road stretches.
Eric Edholm of NFL.com revealed his winners and losers of the schedule release as well, and he went so far as to single out Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Again, as if he or the Chiefs need any more of an upper hand from the powers that be in the league.
"The Chiefs' schedule isn't without its challenges, but it appears that Mahomes will have a fairly good chance of getting through the early part ... assuming he’s back for Week 1 coming off a torn ACL.
"Mahomes has said all along that Week 1 is his goal, and the NFL isn't giving him a cakewalk, with the defending AFC West champion Broncos coming to town fresh off a season sweep of Kansas City in 2025. But what the league has given Mahomes is a longer runway, holding the Chiefs back until the final Week 1 slot on Monday night. He'll literally have every last minute to rehab -- while the Arrowhead fans have a chance to welcome back their hero in style.
"The Colts coming to town in a short week for the Chiefs is a pretty tough follow-up, but it's back-to-back home games to open the season. Those are followed by road games at Miami and Las Vegas, then the bye in Week 5. Not only is it great to pull two easier road games against first-year head coaches (the Dolphins' Jeff Hafley and Raiders' Klint Kubiak) early on, but the bye-week placement might be perfect for Mahomes."
Look, Mahomes is a household name, and it makes sense that the NFL wants him to be in a primetime slot to open up the season. But it is seemingly calculated measures taken by the league like this that make Raider Nation, and other fanbases, feel like they are up against it.
FanSided's Wynston Wilcox also wrote about the easiest NFL schedules, and he put Kansas City on the list. In fact, Wilcox went so far as to say that the pressure is on the Chiefs to make the playoffs because of how stacked the deck is for them in 2026.
"The Kansas City Chiefs might be the only team with an enormous amount of pressure to go on a playoff run this year. Sure the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals need to capitalize on easy schedules, but the fact that the Chiefs could reach their four Super Bowl in five years this year thanks to an easy schedule, well that just adds to a team that can’t falter this year. Travis Kelce is probably done after this year and the dominant era of the Chiefs is almost over.Â
"This is Kansas City’s last shot at a championship. They don’t need to prove anything else, but the mere fact that they can end this year with a championship and won’t have a tough schedule ahead either is good for them. The Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Chargers will be competitors in the division. They do have a tough slate though, playing the Rams, Seahawks, Buffalo Bills and the Patriots. Their schedule is tougher than it looks, but shouldn’t be too much for them to overcome. "
Again, the bones of the schedule are simply the luck of the draw. Everyone in the AFC West is playing the NFC West and AFC East. But somehow, the Chiefs and Broncos ended up with more favorable schedules, despite their remaining three games being against third and first-place teams, not last.
Where the NFL can come in and muck around with things is how they structure the schedule, and as always, Las Vegas got the short end of the stick, while the league's darlings, which now somehow includes the Broncos, in addition to the Chiefs, get pampered along the way.
Obviously, nobody has a crystal ball. Anything could happen, as evidenced by Kansas City's rapid fall from grace last season and Denver's unpredictable ascension. But the rest of the AFC West is staring down a seemingly easier schedule on paper, and Raider Nation is hardly surprised, if at all.
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