Raiders Opinion: Looking Back On a Nightmarish 2022 Season -

In retrospect, no one could have predicted how rough 2022 would be for the Las Vegas Raiders. Now, they must cobble together a better future.

Fresh off a 10-7 season and a playoff appearance as the first Wild Card seed, the Raiders entered the 2022 season with expectations of repetition, at least. Not to mention, the team achieved success while navigating through one of the most tumultuous seasons of off-field drama. For example, dealing with a fired coach and an arrested star wide receiver. To add to the drama, the Raiders would win more than half of their games on walk-offs. Revisiting preseason expectations plays, leading many to believe the offseason addition of superstar Davante Adams would lead to the team’s victories becoming more convincing.

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Fool’s Gold

Many of the advanced analysts warned that the Raiders’ victories coming from game-winning drives were not sustainable. As a result, a regression to the mean could occur. But, the regression to the mean came in a strange way. Instead of failing to convert drives at the end of the game, the team found themselves on the receiving end of multiple last-second losses. This completely shattered the expectation that Las Vegas would earn more multiple-score victories. Good fortune did not shine upon the Raiders.

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Simultaneous Builds

Seeing the Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers building their teams up to contest the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West, the Denver Broncos did not want to be left in the dust and traded a significant portion of their future for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, decreasing the Raiders odds of succeeding in the division. A vast majority of projections placed the Raiders finishing in the bottom half of the West, but this was nothing new, as projections have not shone brightly on the Raiders. The low projections were understandable, but certainly not equivalent to the expectations the Raiders set for themselves prior to the season.

False Hope

Considering the Raiders’ recent history, it is safe to assume the team expected to return to the playoffs, plain and simple. Statistically, an uptick in Derek Carr’s passing yards and touchdowns was also expected after adding Adams, his college teammate. With Josh Jacobs’ contract predicament, no n expected to finish his rookie contract on a high note. Shockingly, those expectations could not have been bigger misses. Under another new head coach, Carr faltered and Jacobs thrived.

A New Leader

Despite having minimal experience as a successful head coach, the game plan for head coach Josh McDaniels’ success with the team was simple: play smart and keep the ship steady. The Raiders had demonstrated their ability to win games with the roster they had, the team just needed guidance and allowance to play their game. As seen with the Raiders’ unfathomable number of blown double-digit leads, these expectations fell short creating the ability to play the “what-if” game in regards to Rich Bisaccia, or a variety of coaches available at the time of McDaniels’ signing.

Overview

With as public as the NFL is, head coach interviews being completely private is frustrating, but completely understandable. Interviews in public would shed light on whether or not these struggles feel expected. As a whole, the Raiders did not meet expectations in 2022. Not only did the team underperform, but they have also taken a step back from losing their long-term quarterback Derek Carr. While Carr has not proven to be the guy, not having a true question mark at quarterback made crafting an offense far simpler. Whoever earns the role as the next Raiders starting quarterback should come into an offense flush with targets, but having a win-now offense (short of a quarterback) makes the team’s decision on the matter that much more important.