There are plenty of reasons for the Las Vegas Raiders to enter the 2025 season with some optimism.
The additions of new head coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Geno Smith have elevated the floor of the Raiders, hopefully ensuring that the team does not suffer a consecutive four-win season. Meanwhile, fans are excited about the debut of first-round pick Ashton Jeanty, as well as how tight end Brock Bowers follows up a tremendous rookie year. Despite the difficulty of sharing a division with three playoff teams from last season, the Raiders can still make some noise.
However, one analyst believes that the NFL schedule makers did the team no favors to that end.
The Raiders’ schedule finishes dead last in one key category.
According to CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan, the Raiders finish last in the NFL in terms of rest advantage.
Rest advantage is the number of collective days that a team’s opponents have on rest compared to them. For the Raiders, they finish with a rest disadvantage of -19, meaning that they face opponents with 19 more days of rest compared to their opponents. The team that finished right ahead of them is the New Orleans Saints, clocking in at -14.
“There are a total of six games next regular season where they’ll be at a rest disadvantage, including two in the first three weeks,” wrote Sullivan. “Later in the year, they’ll also visit the Chargers at SoFi Stadium with L.A. coming off its bye, while they’ll have played the previous week. As for their own bye, the Raiders don’t even get the built-in advantage there, as the Jacksonville Jaguars will also be on the bye in Week 8, leading up to their Week 9 head-to-head.”
The Raiders did have four games with a rest disadvantage last season, finishing 2-2 in those contests. For added context, the team with the most rest advantage in the AFC West are the aforementioned Chargers, who hold a +5 and finished a perfect 3-0 in games where they had the advantage.
This does not mean the Raiders are in trouble heading into the campaign, but facing well-rested opponents could be a factor in staying cautious about setting expectations.
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