Heading into the 2020 season, everyone knew how difficult the opening schedule would be for the Raiders. With games against four-straight playoff teams, a 2-3 start in their first five games felt optimistic. However, the Raiders have surpassed expectations, upsetting the Saints and Chiefs before their Week 6 bye.
While the Raiders aren’t quite in the playoff picture yet, their remaining schedule sets up for them to have a ton of success the rest of the way. In a recent article by John Breech of CBS Sports, he noted that the Raiders have the league’s easiest schedule for the remainder of the season:
“The Raiders, who actually have the easiest remaining schedule of any team, earned that ranking because they still have games against the 0-5 Falcons and 0-5 Jets. Besides that, the Raiders also get to face the 1-4 Chargers and 1-3 Broncos twice each. The Raiders’ 11 remaining opponents have a combined record of 20-33, which puts their strength of schedule at .377.”
The Raiders do have two difficult games coming out of the bye week as they will host Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before traveling to Cleveland to take on the 4-1 Browns. If they are able to split those games and go into Week 9 at 4-3, they will give themselves an excellent shot of going on a run and clinching a playoff berth.
If they can get players like Richie Incognito, Bryan Edwards and Maliek Collins to return to the field after the bye week, there is really no reason why this team can’t get to nine to ten wins this season. Everything is set up for the team to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2016. It’s just up to them to accomplish that goal.
