Oakland Raiders: Five Games To Circle On Team’s 2016 Schedule

The Oakland Raiders have been handed a schedule that is interesting, to say the least. To see if this team is ready for prime time, here are five games may want to circle on their calendars.

The Oakland Raiders have one of the stranger schedules in the NFL this season. The first half of the season features seven of eight teams who finished the 2015 season with losing records – the lone exception, being the Kansas City Chiefs.

The back half of the season is a mirror reflection of the first half in that seven of the team’s eight games will be against teams who finished 2015 with winning records – including both participants in last season’s Super Bowl. The lone game against a team with a losing record in the back half of the season is against the San Diego Chargers.

With a first half of the season that sets up nicely to get the team off to a strong start, the Raiders are then going to have to run a gauntlet in the second half. Which makes it pretty clear that if the Raiders want to take the next step in the franchise’s resurrection, they are going to have to earn it.

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While the Raiders have generated a ton of buzz this offseason and are being talked about as possibly, one of the year’s most improved clubs, there are still plenty of skeptics and doubters out there. Count former Raiders running back Maurice Jones-Drew among them, apparently.

Of course, generating buzz and getting the fanbase excited isn’t the same as winning games. Only winning will prove the doubters wrong and validate the fanbase’s enthusiasm. But will this club, built upon what is now a rock solid foundation, come together to form one cohesive unit? Are they ready to take the next step and put themselves in contention in 2016?

Are these Raiders ready for prime time?

We won’t know for certain until the games start to count, of course. But there are certain games that can be used to take the temperature of this team. There are games that can be used to assess where this club is actually at in terms of its growth and development.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few of those games that can be used as a guide. Here are five games that you might want to circle on the calendar, that might help determine whether or not this team is ready for a bigger stage.

Next: Week One