Five reasons Raiders can make playoffs: Easy schedule and Josh Jacobs, Davante Adams top list

The Raiders enter Thursday Night Football against the Rams exhausted with new life and still an outside chance to make the playoffs. It was hard to imagine them even being on the playoff bubble at this point after they fell to 2-7 with a loss to the Colts. They’ve since won three straight, including straight overtime wins on the road at Denver and Seattle, followed by a seven-point win over the Chargers.

Although they only have a 5% chance of reaching the playoffs according to SportsLine’s projections, they may be closer to running than you think.

Here are five reasons the Raiders can make the playoffs:

1. Calendar easier than it looks

Las Vegas is 5-7 and two games behind the Jets for the final AFC playoff spot, likely needing to win or go 4-1 to secure a playoff spot.

Although the remaining strength of the Raiders’ schedule is around the league average, it may be an easier path than it looks.

• Their Thursday Night Football game is against a Rams team that has lost six straight and plans to play Baker Mayfield two days after signing him.
• Josh McDaniels will reunite with Bill Belichick in Week 15, so all bets are off. However, it’s a home game for Las Vegas against a Patriots team that has lost two games in a row.
• They face an improving Steelers team on the road on Christmas Eve, but they still start a rookie quarterback. Wins against two bubble teams in the playoffs (Patriots and Steelers) could leave the Raiders knocking on the door in the past two weeks.
• It’s unclear what the 49ers will look like in Week 17 with San Francisco’s third quarterback Brock Purdy. But Las Vegas will take precedence over Jimmy Garoppolo.
• And they’ll face a Chiefs team in Week 18 who could be resting starters if they don’t have home-court advantage. The Chiefs have the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, but Buffalo owns the tiebreaker, so they may have nothing at stake in the regular season finale.

If the stars align, the five quarterbacks the Raiders could face are John Wolford, Mac Jones, Kenny Pickett, Brock Purdy and Chad Henne (if Patrick Mahomes is rested).

The Raiders could definitely stay hot as Josh Jacobs and Davante Adams play. Jacobs leads the NFL in rushing and Adams ranks fourth in receiving. The two are on course to break the Raiders single-season running and receiving records held by Marcus Allen and Tim Brown, respectively. They’ve been so good the past few weeks that they’re now on pace for 1,600 rushing yards and 1,600 receiving yards. Only one duo in NFL history has reached those numbers: Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin for the 1995 Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys.

This two-headed monster has also released video game numbers over the past month. They’ve had 1,470 scrimmage yards in their last five games. That’s nearly 300 per game! That’s more than 12 full teams since Week 9. It’s also the most teammates in a five-game span since Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce for the 2000 Rams.

When you have such a hot duo, any game is at your fingertips.

As good as Jacobs and Adams are, the Raiders offense would benefit from the return of Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow. Both are eligible to come off injured reserve this week, though that’s more likely to happen in Week 15 against the Patriots, rather than in a short week.

There was certainly hype around the Raiders’ offense earlier in the year, and rightly so. They had three players with 100 catch seasons on their resumes in Adams, Waller and Renfrow. Still, the Raiders only ran 37 games with their “Big 4” of Adams, Waller, Renfrow and Jacobs on the field together. Returns from Waller and Renfrow could lighten the load with Adams and Jacobs combining for nearly two-thirds of the Raiders’ yards this season.

No one expected the Raiders to have one of the best defenses in the NFL this year, but we at least expected the passing rush to be their strength after acquiring Chandler Jones to sing. associate with Maxx Crosby. That hasn’t been the case for most of the season until recently. The Raiders have 11 sacks on their three-game winning streak after having an NFL low of 10 sacks in the first 10 weeks of the year.

Crosby had been a one-man wrecking team on defense all season until Jones woke up in recent weeks. Jones leads the NFL with 20 pressures during the Raiders’ winning streak, more than he had in his first nine games combined (18). He also had his best game of the season in Week 13, racking up 3.0 sacks against the Chargers.

Jones (20) and Crosby (19) rank 1-2 league-wide in pressure over the past three weeks, just ahead of Micah Parsons (18). With the duo finally playing at the level we expected, the struggling Raiders defense might have enough firepower to close out the games.

5. They ran the board last year

I probably wouldn’t be so optimistic about the Raiders’ chances if I hadn’t seen them run the roster last year. They started 6-7 in 2021 before winning four straight close games, including a crazy final against the Chargers, to sneak into the playoffs. They also benefited from facing off with two backup quarterbacks during that span, Nick Mullens and Drew Lock, as well as Carson Wentz. As I mentioned near the top, the Raiders could once again have a friendly path to the finish line.

Another key to late last year was winning close games. The Raiders have won their last four games in 2021 with a combined 12 points. They were 7-2 in single-scoring games on the season. There’s definitely an element of luck involved there, but if anything, Las Vegas luck is finally turning around this season. They have won three straight games, all by a score, after starting the season 0-6 in one possession games. They were on the wrong end of Kyler Murray’s miraculous plays in an overtime loss to Arizona and missed a late two-run try against the Chiefs. They also tied an NFL record by blowing three 17-point leads this year! The thing is, things are finally turning around after a rough start.

I can’t promise lightning will strike twice for the Raiders, but you can at least see how all the pieces could fall into place between their path to the playoffs, health, star power, and momentum.

Entering Wednesday, they have +600 chances of making the playoffs at Caesars Sportsbook, a fair price for a team that has a lot to do to get into the final month of the season.