The Raiders are fresh off an embarrassing loss to the Saints on Sunday, but coach Josh McDaniels isn’t giving up on Las Vegas’ faint playoff hopes.
The blowout defeat in New Orleans has much of the NFL asking what’s wrong in Las Vegas, with some wondering if McDaniels can survive his first year as Raiders coach. But when asked whether he still entertains thoughts of making a postseason run, McDaniels didn’t back down.
“Absolutely. It’s a long year. I believe we haven’t reached our best football yet,” McDaniels told reporters on Monday. “It’s going to take work and progress and improvement in order to do that. At this point in time, [no team has] qualified for anything, and nobody’s been eliminated.
“Consistency is going to be what we’re going to try to push for. If we can do that and start playing our best football and start stringing together some wins, you look up at the end of the year and a lot of things can happen. Certainly, that’s our goal. Our goals are still out there. We’re going to need to play better, coach better to earn them.”
Only three teams — the Jaguars, Steelers, and Texans — are currently below the Raiders in the AFC standings. And there are seven teams with winning records that would make the playoffs if the postseason started today. So the Raiders’ odds of making the playoffs are long. Of course, Las Vegas 2-5 record could tell you that much.
But at this point, a mere postseason push could do wonders for McDaniels and the Raiders. There’s almost no chance McDaniels will be fired after one season by team owner Mark Davis, but winning ballgames would relieve some pressure from ownership.
And since McDaniels will be back next year barring more embarrassing losses, he’d probably rather build momentum with his current players, including those who signed large contracts recently such as quarterback Derek Carr, wide receivers Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow, and tight end Darren Waller.
If the Raiders can’t display their potential in the weeks to come, the franchise could decide to start over and rebuild, including at quarterback, as guaranteed money in Carr’s contract rises dramatically if the Raiders decide to keep him after this season.
If Las Vegas opts to rebuild and move on from Carr, it would not only be a failure on the field, it would be a failure for the new regime’s game plan of pairing Carr with Adams. A postseason push could keep McDaniels’ vision intact and on pace for a breakout season in 2023.
Plus, it could actually provide entertaining football. And in Las Vegas, that’s nothing to be sneezed at, either. Because as bad as the Raiders season is now, it could get even worse with more losing. McDaniels’ real goal is to prevent this season from completely deteriorating, and keeping an eye on the playoffs can only help.
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