Oakland Raiders: Ranking 2018 games from least to most difficult

As the Oakland Raiders prepare for what should be an – interesting – season, let’s break down the schedule from “easiest” games, to “most difficult.”

The Oakland Raiders, according to the math nerds, fueled by the NFL schedule makers, have calculated that the Silver and Black will face a tie with the Broncos and Bengals for the twenty-ninth toughest – or, third easiest, depending upon which way you look at it – schedule in the league this season.

Last season’s combined record of Oakland’s opponents this year was 121-135, or a .473 winning percentage.

Now, if you’re facing a sub-.500 team during the season, you have to like your chances in that game, right? Right.

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But, when you’re heading into a new season, the combined record of your opponents from last season mean two things – diddly and squat.

Players move around. Maybe, they turn out to be less effective as they were the year before. Maybe, somebody’s coming back from a big injury. Coaches change.

A team that went 12-4 one year, made the playoffs, and still looks tough on paper, might, you know, take a big step back and finish say, 6-10 the following season. Just sayin’.

Basically, the whole notion of “strength of schedule,” and how it impacts the current season is overblown and actually, means very little. Sure, it generates topics of discussion and is good for filling up some columns, airtime, and whatnot – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

But, as it relates to what happens on the field in the current season? Not so much.

For the purposes of this piece, we’re going to look at the Oakland’s opponents in their current state, and factor in things other than just last season’s win-loss record.

In this article, we’re going to take everything we can into account, and rank Oakland’s 2018 games from “easiest” to “most difficult.”

This is not to say that any game will be easy, per se – this is the NFL, and anything can happen on any given Sunday, and all of that. But, not all games are created equal. Despite parity reigning in the NFL, there are still some teams that are just fundamentally better than others.

With that in mind, let’s break down Oakland’s 2018 schedule, going from “easiest” to “most difficult” games they’ll face this season…