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

Week 1 @ New Orleans Saints

Every team wants to get a season started on the right foot. How they perform in Week One can sometimes set a tone for the season. A win or a loss in the season opener isn’t a guarantee for how the season will turn out obviously, but teams still want to get started off on as strong of a note as possible.

And perhaps no team in the league wants to get started off on the right foot more than the Raiders. After a splashy offseason that saw GM Reggie McKenzie uncharacteristically open up the checkbook and spend big on some valuable, much needed upgrades, the Raiders are indeed looking like a formidable group that is poised to make some real noise in the AFC West.

The question now is – will this group be able to come together and take the next step in their progression? Will the new faces blend as seamlessly into the team’s schemes as fans are hoping?

The best way to start putting an end to those questions is with a convinving showing in the opening week of the season. And perhaps the league threw Oakland a bone by giving them the New Orleans Saints straight out of the gate.
Of course, the Saints still have Drew Brees under center, so this is not a team to be taken lightly – and it’s one that is absolutely going to test the Raiders’ revamped secondary. But this is also a team without a lot of offensive weaponry to work with.

These are not the same high-flying Saints of a few years ago that lit up the stat books and scoreboards. This is a team that went 7-9 in 2015 and though they had the league’s eighth ranked offense, they also had the league’s absolutely worst defense. And because of their own salary cap issues, this is a team that hasn’t been able to do much to upgrade.

Given the trajectory of both clubs, this is a team that the Raiders should be capable of beating. And to start the season off on the right note, Oakland is going to want to come out incredibly strong and really put it on New Orleans.

Next: Week Six