Silver Minings: 2023 schedule was favorable

Raiders played a lot of lesser teams in 2023

Whenever a team has a losing season and don’t make the playoffs there are a lot of regrets and that’s certainly the case for the Las Vegas Raiders, who went 8-9 in the 2023 season.

But one primary regret the team may have as it looks back on the season was it didn’t take advantage of playing more games against the worst teams in the league than the best.

The Raiders weren’t bad against bad teams, but the problem was they weren’t good against the better teams even though they played less than games against good teams.

The Raiders had seven games against the 14 playoff teams and went 2-5 in those games. Against the other teams drafting in the top 14 (the Raiders pick No. 13) the Raiders had 10 games. They went 6-4 in those games.

You never know how difficult the Raiders 2024 schedule is going to be. They have seven teams that are in the top 15 of the draft order. They have eight games against 2023 playoff teams with five on the road.

In other Raiders’ news:

• QB rankings: Here are PFF’s final quarterback rankings.
• Offseason guide: The Athletic looks at the Raiders’ offseason plan.
• Pod time: The Athletic gives Raiders’ season awards in this podcast.