Paradoxically, Pete Carroll and the Raiders could benefit a lot if the Chiefs win 15 of their first 16 games and wrap up AFC home-field advantage by the end of 2025. It’s actually not complicated.

Matt Zemek
 |  Trojans Wire

Pete Carroll has been around the NFL long enough to know and accept some tough truths about pro football. One is that in Week 18 — the final week of the regular season — no teams have a right to complain about how other teams handle their business. In Week 18, some teams will rest their starters. Other teams will go all-out. The bottom line is that if a team hasn’t secured a playoff berth, a division title, or home-field advantage by Week 18, it has left everything to chance. The moral of the story: Don’t let the season come down to one game. That said, the Las Vegas Raiders‘ Week 18 game against the Kansas City Chiefs could contain a significant irony. Raiders Wire discussed this game, ranking it the fifth-toughest game on the Raiders’ 2025 NFL schedule:

“This one is on the assumption the Chiefs will still have something to play for. And they come into this game off a long week from playing on Thursday Night. If the Raiders are actually playing for anything, the Chiefs will be ready to play spoiler.”

The irony here is this: If the Kansas City Chiefs have a typically great regular season, such that they will wrap up home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs by Week 17, they could rest their starters in Week 18, much as they did against the Denver Broncos in Week 18 of last season. The Chiefs got blown out by Denver, enabling the Broncos to make the playoffs. The Chiefs wanted to avoid playing the Cincinnati Bengals — a team which has given the Chiefs problems — in the postseason. It was an easy call to rest the starters against the Broncos and take the loss in Week 18.

The Raiders could benefit from the very same dynamic this season.

The Raiders and Chiefs hate each other. They are ancient NFL and AFL rivals. Yet, it could be in the Raiders’ best interests to see the Chiefs dominate the NFL this season. If it means the Raiders don’t have to play Patrick Mahomes in Week 18, it could therefore mean the Raiders finish 10-7 instead of 9-8 and get into the NFL playoffs.