The Week 6 bye couldn’t have come at a better time for the Las Vegas Raiders. After an impressive win over the Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders were running on fumes with so many players injured and out of the lineup.
Entering Week 7, the Raiders are expected to get back the likes of Maliek Collins, Maurice Hurst and Bryan Edwards. They will need all three of those players to perform well this week as they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But how do the Raiders stack up against the rest of the league? In a recent article by Mark Schofield of the Touchdown Wire, he ranked all 32 teams after Week 6. Not surprisingly, the Raiders were in the top half of the league, finishing at No. 12. Here is a snippet of what Schofield thinks about this Las Vegas team so far:
“In two of their wins this season (the Chiefs game and their earlier defeat of the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football) (Derek) Carr and the Raiders seemed much more explosive in the downfield passing game. Against the Chiefs, Carr’s Intended Air Yards was 9.0, well above his usual mark, which hovers around six yards or so.
The question facing Las Vegas is this: Does that last? Can this offense remain explosive downfield, or does Carr give the doubters more reason to crow?”
The Raiders will face another big test in Week 7 as they will take on arguably the best defense in the NFL in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team will Derek Carr to make plays down the field in order to keep the defense honest. If he can connect on a few deep passes, that should open up everything underneath for players like Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow.
Without a doubt, the Raiders are an improved team. But are they good enough to make a playoff run over the next 11 games? That remains to be seen. But so far, so good for Jon Gruden’s Raiders.
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