Las Vegas Raiders 2020 NFL schedule: 5 must-win games

If the Las Vegas Raiders want to be a playoff team next year, they’ll need to find a way to win these five critical games on their 2020 NFL schedule.

With an expanded playoff field in both conferences, one NFL team who could benefit from this greatly is the Las Vegas Raiders. For a minute there, the Raiders had the look of a Wild Card team last season under head coach Jon Gruden. It was brief, but we started to see a pathway to the Raiders maybe being excellent again one day soon. The 2020 NFL season will play a big part here.

Not only will it be Gruden’s third season into his second stint leading the team, but the Silver and Black moved from Oakland to Las Vegas this offseason. No longer will they play in the worst stadium in the NFL. Brand-new Allegiant Stadium will be magnificent and a crown jewel in Southern Nevada. The Raiders will be a playoff team again here soon.

Of course, they do play in an incredibly tough division. Every team in the AFC West has reasonable expectations of pushing for the playoffs. While the Kansas City Chiefs are expected to win the division again, the Raiders, the Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Chargers should all push for Wild Card berths. What this comes down to is who wins more critical games on their schedules.

Here are five games the Raiders need to win if they want to get over .500 and make the playoffs.

The best the Raiders can realistically hope to do next year is go 10-6. That should be good enough to secure one of the three Wild Card spots in the AFC, but probably not good enough to win the AFC West. 11-5 or 12-4 would have to be that benchmark. With the division being so tough, the best way the Silver and Black get to the postseason is to win their third-place games.

The first of two third-place games we’ll touch on is the Raiders’ road date with the Cleveland Browns. In the last two years, there have been moments with the Browns where they haven’t looked too shabby. They’re not great, but they are totally better than the no-win mess they were under former head coach Hue Jackson. Like Las Vegas, the Browns will push for a Wild Card spot.

To win on the road, possibly in bad weather against a team with a great pass rush and a ton of weapons on offense won’t be easy, but it’s what the Raiders need to do to help get over .500. Again, having the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Browns, on the road no less, will be huge to helping the Raiders get the No. 5, the No. 6 or the new No. 7 seed in the AFC. They need this one.

Another reason going 2-0 in their third-place games is so important is it’ll help the Raiders get ahead of the Broncos and hold steady against the Chargers. Keep in mind Denver inherits a tougher second-place schedule, while Los Angeles has a slightly easier fourth-place schedule.