Oddsshark recently released over/under regular season win totals for National Football League teams.

Here is a look at the Oakland Raiders in the AFC West.

Over/under

Oddsshark has Oakland at 5.5 regular season wins. Last year, the Raiders went 3-13 in the regular season.

The upside

After more than a decade of dismal results, the Oakland Raiders finally have some talent.

The talent is young, but at least there’s some building blocks on this team. Second-year quarterback Derek Carr will have better targets this year, with rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper, who was possibly the surest bet out of the 2015 NFL draft, and wide receiver Michael Crabtree. Running back Latavius Murray will start at running back, and if the end of last year is any indication, he should be ready for more carries.

Murray didn’t really factor into the Radiers’ gameplan until late November when the Raiders hosted the Chiefs on a Thursday night. Oakland entered the game winless, and left the game with a win, and a running back who ran for 112 yards on only four carries (he got injured during the game.) I don’t mean to brag, but I actually picked the Raiders to win outright in that game as touchdown underdogs, and I picked up Murray on the fantasy football waiver wire that week. It’s unlikely I’ll ever have a better week than that.

Defensively, the Raiders will look to second-year man Khalil Mack as the leader. He had a solid rookie season and should only get better.

The downside

This is still the Raiders we’re talking about. Futility has been their middle name since losing in the Super Bowl in 2002.

Since that time, Oakland has gone 8-8 twice, and in the other 10 seasons, it didn’t win more than five games. To satisfy the over, Oakland must win six games this season.

While the talent is increasing, it is still young. Several second-year players and rookies will play important roles on this team. Consistency hasn’t been a calling card for the Raiders in the last decade, and with that much inexperience, it will be tough to predict what kind of team will show up each week.

There’s reason to believe the offense and defense will get better. However, the numbers from last year leave little room to go down. The defense allowed the most points per game of any NFL team, and the offense ranked toward the bottom of the league in total offense, rushing, passing and scoring.

The verdict

It’s tough to judge how well the Raiders will do. On paper, this team should be much better than the previous years. It seemed like things started to click last season, with Oakland finishing the regular season winning three of its final six games.

But the schedule will be difficult. The Raiders will square off against the NFC North and AFC North, in addition to divisional games and other singular match-ups. The AFC North has three teams coming back that had winning records last year, and the NFC North should feature three teams that will be competitive on a weekly basis.

Oakland seems like a team most teams won’t want to face, especially at Oakland because it has young talent. With that youth comes inconsistency, so this should be an interesting season. There’s not much certainty behind this pick, but go ahead and take the over, and prepare for a roller coaster ride.

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