Where the Raiders Truly Stand After Bye Week

The Las Vegas Raiders may not be where they want to be, but according to OnSI,'s league-wide team of beat writers and co-beat writers, things could still be worse, as the team of writers ranked the Raiders as the 25th-best team in the league.

Grading the Raiders

The Raiders need Geno Smith to shake off his first seven games as a Raider, but the Raiders must also have Kenny Pickett ready to go. The Bye Week gave the Raiders plenty of opportunity to get Pickett more comfortable.

Still, before the Bye Week, Raiders Head Coach Pete Carroll noted his belief that Smith is ready to turn things around. Las Vegas must change things up along the offensive line and potentially at quarterback as well.

“I think he's coming out of it. I think he's turning the corner. He was clean yesterday with the ball in his opportunities. He didn't get many chances. We just didn't have any plays. There just were no plays. And so, stacking games and pushing the history of this early part of the season farther away from us, it helps. He's as competitive as ever. He's raring to go. He's frustrated because we want to win, and we want to play big and all that. That's going to always hold him connected to that thought,” Carroll said.

“But he's ready to go and we need to build it up around him. He can't do all of it by himself. He needs the help, he needs the guys to go to and the guys to come through for him, the protection to be there for him, so that he can play his position, and hopefully we can get going. Kansas City was really, really good against us yesterday in all phases of their game. And they were ready for that moment more so than we were, and they played to it.