At this time last season, there wasn’t much hope that the Raiders were going to be able to make a playoff run. The team just traded away Khalil Mack for two first-round picks and Jon Gruden was in Year 1 of his rebuild.
But after a 4-12 season, some believe the Raiders are poised to make a run at the playoffs in 2019. Oakland brought in several established veterans, such as Antonio Brown, Trent Brown and Lamarcus Joyner to speed up the rebuilding process. However, is that enough to get them back to the playoffs?
In a recent piece by FiveThirtyEight, their models predict that the Raiders will go 6-10 in 2019. After running 100,000 simulations for the 2019 season, Oakland made the playoffs just 12 percent of the time. Unfortunately, their forecast predicts the Raiders as having the third-fewest wins, just behind the Cardinals and the Dolphins.
Oakland could be a significantly improved team in 2019, but it just might not be reflected in the win-loss total due to a brutal schedule. They should be a much more competitive team this season, which will keep them in many close games throughout the year.
It does appear that the Raiders may be one year away from being serious contenders in the AFC, but stranger things have happened before. Look for the Raiders to finish the season with somewhere between 6-8 wins, just outside of the playoff picture.
