{"id":190933,"date":"2025-07-08T12:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/190933\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T12:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:58:11","slug":"raiders-not-expected-to-contend-in-the-afc-west-cbs-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/190933\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Not &#8216;Expected To Contend In The AFC West&#8217;\u2014CBS Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Despite making several moves this year, CBS Sports believes that the <a href=\"http:\/\/raiderramble.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> will struggle to compete in the highly competitive AFC West.<\/p>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">We all know the story surrounding the league\u2019s toughest division. Heading into the 2025 NFL season, the West features three playoff squads that arguably only got better this offseason. The Kansas City Chiefs are still the cream of the crop, fresh off a Super Bowl appearance. The Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers are the other two teams that successfully bounced back in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Will the \u201925 Raiders make noise in the AFC West?<\/p>\n<p>So where does that leave the Raiders? After a disastrous season under head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco, the Raiders made significant changes. The reset shook the foundation of the organization\u2014Tom Brady in as a minority owner, Brady\u2019s college teammate John Spytek taking the GM reins, and Pete Carroll making his return to coaching.<\/p>\n<p>All of that said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/news\/2025-nfl-win-total-picks-afc-west-overunder-predictions-top-expert-says-take-denver-broncos-over-9-5-wins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CBS Sports\u2019 Jimmie Kaylor<\/a> doesn\u2019t think it\u2019ll be enough. BetMGM has set the odds for the Raiders to win fewer than 7.5 games at -135. \u201cGeno Smith doesn\u2019t move the needle for me, but he is a much more stable option for the Raiders than Gardner Minshew and Aidan O\u2019Connell,\u201d wrote Kaylor. \u201cThis is a team that I don\u2019t expect to contend in the AFC West, but I do expect to see play better in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kaylor did shed praise for two of Las Vegas\u2019s biggest names: tight end Brock Bowers and rookie star Ashton Jeanty. However, despite the layers they bring to Chip Kelly\u2019s offense, it\u2019s not enough to win more than seven games at most, according to CBS.<\/p>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">The Raiders must prove themselves before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raiders.com\/news\/raiders-2025-schedule-release-nfl-patriots-cowboys-allegiant-stadium\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the hype can be taken seriously<\/a>, regardless of fairness. While it\u2019s natural for Raider Nation to feel optimistic, an objective observer may have a different perspective on the team\u2019s current situation. The Raiders haven\u2019t won the AFC West since 2002, which was also the last time they went to the Super Bowl. In other words, it\u2019s understandable why some individuals may lack confidence in Las Vegas\u2019 ability <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/raiders\/las-vegas-kansas-city-chiefs-pete-carroll-ashton-jeanty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">to make a turnaround<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>*Top Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Join The Ramble Email List<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite making several moves this year, CBS Sports believes that the Las Vegas Raiders will struggle to compete&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[1991,7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-190933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-afc-west","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-las-vegas","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","12":"tag-lasvegas","13":"tag-lasvegasraiders","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114817735588435048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190933","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=190933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}