{"id":648314,"date":"2026-01-02T14:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/648314\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T14:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:49:09","slug":"3-x-factors-on-offense-for-week-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/648314\/","title":{"rendered":"3 X-factors on offense for Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> would clinch the No. 1 overall selection in the 206 NFL draft<\/a> with a loss in Week 18 to the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>. The offense will be severely shorthanded on Sunday. It sounds like both backup quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Aidan O’Connell will play in place of an injured Geno Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Things might get whacky. We’ve identified three potential X-factors on offense for the Raiders’ regular-season finale with the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

Michael Mayer, TE<\/p>\n

Michael Mayer is serving as the Raiders’ top tight end with Brock Bowers nursing a season-ending injury. Mayer was impactful last week, registering nine receptions on 10 targets for 89 receiving yards. He’s the passing offense’s top healthy option.<\/p>\n

Caleb Rogers, IOL<\/p>\n

Rookie right guard Caleb Rogers has been impressive since finally entering the starting lineup. Pete Carroll delayed the process due to stubbornness and loyalty to veteran players. Sunday’s finale with the Chiefs will be John Spytek’s final opportunity to evaluate Rogers this season.<\/p>\n

Ashton Jeanty, RB<\/p>\n

Rookie running back Ashton Jeanty is chasing Raiders history<\/a>. He’s merely 90 yards away from setting the organization’s single-season record for the most all-purpose yards by a first-year playmaker. Jeanty, the focal point of the offense, should break Josh Jacobs’ record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Las Vegas Raiders would clinch the No. 1 overall selection in the 206 NFL draft with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[6013,10372,247,265,6910,2639,797,346,739,7,2934,1507,20842,8746,1283,856,4129,1070,805,110,97,570,523,1744,393,2455,2454,9588,1247,10351,6126,6851,248,267,246,88,6,35196,10365,245,264,98,525,2383,9,266,524],"class_list":["post-648314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-aidan","tag-aidan-oconnell","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-bowers","tag-brock","tag-brock-bowers","tag-chiefs","tag-city","tag-football","tag-geno","tag-geno-smith","tag-hub","tag-jacobs","tag-johnson","tag-josh","tag-josh-jacobs","tag-jr","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kenny","tag-kenny-pickett","tag-las","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-lonnie","tag-lonnie-johnson-jr","tag-mayer","tag-michael","tag-michael-mayer","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-neutral","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-oconnell","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-pickett","tag-raiders","tag-smith","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-vegas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648314","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=648314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}