Jan 27, 2025; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll at press conference at Intermountain Health Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Good and Bad About the Raiders' Schedule

Originally posted on Las Vegas Raiders on SI
By Fernando Alfaro-Donis | Last updated May 20, 2025 12:00 PM ET

The Las Vegas Raiders' schedule has been out for a couple of days now, and there are some interesting things to note from it. The first is that Pete Carroll won't be getting his revenge against his former team, the Seattle Seahawks.

It would have been an intriguing matchup between two teams at different stages of a rebuild, with one team projected to improve and the other projected to regress. It also would've been Geno Smith's revenge game, which would've just made that matchup even better. Raider Nation will have to wait for 2026 and hope that they'll see Carroll and the Raiders face off against the Seahawks.

John Breech is a sports writer for CBS Sports, and he released an article where he discusses some strengths and weaknesses of specific teams' schedules. For the Raiders, he identifies one of their strengths as Smith's improved play in stadiums inside, while stating that they end off the season with a gauntlet of playoff teams.

"The Raiders get to close the season by playing seven of their final eight games indoors. That could be a good thing for new quarterback Geno Smith, who has a career QB rating above 100 when playing indoors.

In 16 games, he's thrown 31 touchdown passes compared to just six interceptions. He has also averaged 243.8 passing yards per game when playing indoors, which is well above his career average of 203.6. If Smith plays like that, it could set the Raiders up for a strong finish. From Week 11 thru Week 18, their only outdoor game will come in Week 15 against the Eagles".

Smith will have to elevate this offense continuously throughout the course of next season if the Raiders want any chance of being successful next season. While this stretch of indoor play may be beneficial for the success of Smith, it comes with a caveat.

"The Raiders better get off to a hot start this season, because there's a good chance they're not going to win very many games down the stretch. Over the final six weeks of the season, the Raiders will be facing five teams that made the playoffs last year, including both Super Bowl teams (Chiefs and Eagles). It also doesn't help that three of those games -- against the Eagles, Texans and Chargers -- will come on the road. The only upside here, as we already mentioned, is that most of these games are indoors".

The offensive load won't solely rely on Smith, as Ashton Jeanty is a superb schematic fit with the Raiders, a team that's built its off-season acquisitions focused heavily on the run. The Raiders only won four games last season, and yet their schedule isn't a cake walk. Next year will be really telling if Carroll can bring in a winning culture to Las Vegas or if it's another buffer year for a team that hasn't had a winning record since 2021.

This article first appeared on Las Vegas Raiders on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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