After a somewhat successful 2019 season, the Raiders are ready to take the next step as a franchise. Entering the third season of Jon Gruden’s rebuild, it’s time for the Raiders to make and compete in the playoffs.
But to do that, the Raiders will need to beat good teams during the regular season to prove they are ready for the playoffs. However, that hasn’t been a strength of the Raiders since Gruden returned to the sidelines. In fact, the Raiders have yet to accomplish this feat.
According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, the Raiders have yet to beat a team that advanced to the playoffs since 2018. Making matters worse, the average margin of defeat is nearly 20 points. When playing eventual playoff teams, the Raiders have allowed an average of 34 points on defense.
While the defense obviously has struggled over the past two seasons, the offense hasn’t helped much, either. Against eventual playoff teams, the Raiders have averaged just 15 points on offense. That’s at least 7-10 points fewer than they need to score to compete against good teams in the AFC.
The Raiders’ roster does appear to be ready to compete in 2020 with significantly more talent on both sides of the ball. But all of their additions will be for not if they can’t compete with the best teams in either conference. Luckily for the Raiders, they should know early on in the season if they are contenders or not given their tough schedule in the first two months of the year.
If the Raiders can compete with the likes of the Saints (Week 2), Patriots (Week 3) and Bills (Week 4) in the first month of the year, they will set themselves up well for a playoff run in January. If they struggle against these caliber of teams, look for them to be drafting inside of the top-12 once again next season.
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