![\"klint](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2295125280.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak.<\/p>\n
The Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> were widely favored to beat the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, and they took care of business. The team won 27-13, and both the offense and defense looked strong.<\/p>\n The Raiders were the worst team in the NFL<\/a> last season, but it\u2019s clear that they\u2019ve improved quite a bit. Now, the Dolphins may end up being the worst team this season, but it was still an impressive win.<\/p>\n However, it wasn\u2019t that impressive to some in the media. ESPN released their power rankings<\/a> after Week 1, and they had the Raiders at No. 28, which represented a drop from when they were No. 27 before the season.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t really make much sense. For example, the New York Jets<\/a> jumped the Raiders in the rankings, but they played a very bad Tennessee Titans team in Week 1. It\u2019s hard to see how that win was any more impressive than what the Raiders did.<\/p>\n Also, 12 teams that lost in Week 1 were ranked ahead of Las Vegas. Now, the Raiders haven\u2019t proven enough to leapfrog some of the top teams that lost in Week 1, but placing them lower than the New Orleans Saints<\/a> and Washington Commanders after they both lost in Week 1 is a curious choice.<\/p>\n Raiders Clearly Still Have a Lot to Prove<\/p>\n While it doesn\u2019t seem fair to have the Raiders drop in the power rankings after a win, it\u2019s hard to argue against the media. The team also won in Week 1 last year, but only won two more games the rest of the season.<\/p>\n The Raiders have to prove that they can play consistent football if they\u2019re going to be respected by the media. Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> will be huge.<\/p>\n If the Raiders beat their AFC West rival, they could skyrocket up the power rankings. It\u2019s one thing to beat a bad team, but it\u2019s another thing to beat a playoff team from last season that a lot of people in the media love.<\/p>\n Kwity Paye Draws Praise for Week 1 Performance<\/p>\n One of the big free agent additions by the Raiders was defensive end Kwity Paye<\/a>. The former first-round pick has been a bit up and down in his career, but is highly regarded as a run defender.<\/p>\n In Week 1, he showed that he can get after the quarterback and had 2.0 sacks. If he can establish himself as a pass rush threat, that would be huge for the Raiders defense. ESPN\u2019s Ryan McFadden singled Paye out as a standout from their game against the Dolphins.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Raiders have been searching for a secondary pass rusher to support All-Pro Maxx Crosby,\u201d McFadden wrote. \u201cPaye, who signed a three-year deal in free agency, showed Sunday that he could fill that role with two sacks, five pressures and five quarterback hits. Under first-time defensive coordinator Rob Leonard, the Raiders want to be aggressive and make life uncomfortable for opposing quarterbacks. If Paye continues to have performances similar to the one he had in Week 1, the outlook for Las Vegas could be a lot different this season.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAustin Boyd<\/a> has covered the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com since 2019. A Los Angeles native now based in Las Vegas, his featured work at Heavy includes interviews with NFL stars Darren Waller and Joe Montana, and a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shop.” More about Austin Boyd<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak. The Las Vegas Raiders were widely favored to beat the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1001649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":["post-1001648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-football","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-nfl","tag-raiders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117276224387353775","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}