Raiders release more important details about their 2026 schedule that wasn’t released at the same time
The Las Vegas Raiders’ 2026 schedule is hard, very hard, but it should only help them get better.
When all of the schedules were released on Thursday, it became very clear that the Las Vegas Raiders had one of the hardest ones. However, they have a strong preseason schedule before their regular season. Later, after the release of the regular-season schedule, they announced the preseason games.
The Raiders are set to host the Arizona Cardinals for the first preseason game. This is their second year playing Arizona in the preseason. Then they head to Houston, Texas, to play the Texans. After that, they finish up their preseason with a game at home against the San Francisco 49ers. They also play the 49ers in the regular season in the Bay Area, their first time playing back there since leaving Oakland.
The preseason is so important because this is where the Raiders will truly find out who their 3 players will be. They go from 90 to 53 by the time the last preseason game is done. The teams they are set to play in the preseason have many talented players at the end of their depth charts.
This will also allow the Raiders to get eyes on guys who could end up getting cut but would serve Vegas well on a practice squad or a similar role.
Raiders will have a tough stretch of games after the preseason
The Raiders are finally entering the first year of a serious rebuild. In the past, it was the same old same old, bringing in players who were obviously bad and not in any way capable of helping the team get better. And the last few coaching hires were probably not done the right way either.
Just from a quick glance, without even looking at home or away games and the trips they are set to make, you could tell it’s a tough one, solely from the teams they play. Of course, it doesn’t help that they are in the AFC West, which is maybe the deepest division in football. It became increasingly clear the more you looked at the schedule, that the NFL was not going to go easy on Klint Kubiak in his first season.