This is a special story for RaidersSnakepit.com from Matt Williamson:. In light of the new sports gambling news sweeping the country, this is Part 4 of an eight part series predicting team number of wins. The Over/Under lines were found on VegasInsider.com and when referencing each team’s strength of schedule, I always prefer Warren Sharp’s
AFC West over/under predictions
Under eight wins? Wanna bet? Whatever, we’re better equipped as underdogs rather than favorites.
You can take the writer out of Denver, but apparently you can’t take the Denver out of the writer. Since your days at ESPN you’ve been totally in the bag for the Broncos, Bill. I don’t know why you even cover the Raiders. I’ll take any bet you want to throw out that Oak finishes with a better record than Den this year!!
Patrick, Matt Williamson wrote this story.
Burn.
Well, I’m an idiot.
No, you are not, an idiot wouldn’t own it.
It’s all good.
I do wonder if they are related, however.
Bill, what say you?
I have been listening and reading Matt’s stuff for quite a few years now and I mostly respect his opinions. He is mostly fair but he does have some personal biases. He is a longtime Steeler fan who has admitted that he was raised to hate the Raiders. I have just grown to take his takes on the Raiders with a grain of salt. The one thing that irked me about what he had to say the Raiders going to heavy offensive personnel and the power run game. For one nobody knows exactly what the offense will be like yet. I tend to think that Gruden is wanting to run an offense that can do it all, but I guess we will have to wait and see. I just get irritated with the national media thinking he is taking the offense back to the 90’s.
Interesting take but I think the Raiders have improved their defense with the draft if they can stay healthy . So I’ll predict 8.5 games Verdict and go for the over. Kolten will end up being a good starter but not sure how long that will take and if Penn comes in healthy we could see improvement in the O-line as well. A lot of ifs but I stand firm in my humble opinion . Keep up the good work gentlemen, we appreciate the Snakepit and podcast coverage.
I don’t disagree with Matt’s assessment, but I do question whether Case Keenum is the answer. It is curious that the Vikings did not want to keep the QB who took them to the Chapionship game. The question for me with the Broncos is whether there are enough offensive pieces around for Case Keenum to function at the same level he did last year (can he repeat that type of year?). The Chargers, I think, can be the team to beat. If the Chargers stay healthy and get their act together earlier in the season (likely since they are in the same system they were last year). The wild card for me, are the Chiefs, is Mahomes all that the Chiefs think he is? If so, they could be tough, but did they get better or worse defensively? With regard to the Raiders, there are MANY “ifs” surrounding their off season. Too many for my tastes and as Matt says, that usually does not work out well for the team. I see the Chargers as a 10-11 win team, the Chiefs a 6-8 win team, the Raiders a 7-8 win team, and the Broncos a 6-7 win team.
Don’t understand why everyone is so high on the chargers. They’ve fielded a very solid team for awhile now, yet they are consistently mediocre with the occasional slip into the playoffs. I guess it’s an easy/“educated” guess to say chargers take the West with all the turnover going on with the rest of the division. I get it but the chargers are not some type of powerhouse, they can easily be beaten and Philips arm has a ton of mileage on it. If that’s all the raiders need to overcome in chuckys first year back, raiders take the west and a bye.