Adam Hill: NFL schedule makers not believing the hype on rebuilding Raiders

Adam Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal on May 15, 2026

Published in Football

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LAS VEGAS — It may take the league and television executives a bit longer to buy in to the excitement the Las Vegas Raiders have created among their fan base with their offseason moves and the selection of Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 pick in the draft.

The NFL unveiled the full schedule for the 2026 season, and the Raiders are not featured in a single prime-time game.

No “Sunday Night Football.” No “Monday Night Football.” Not even an Amazon game on a Thursday night. In fact, only three games even kick off outside the 1 p.m. Pacific hour on Sunday and all will be 10 a.m. starts.

They will also have to wait very deep into the season should they want to install Mendoza as the starting quarterback during the bye week.

The Raiders will not have their respite until Week 13, which was also the case in 2023.

While they will close the season with consecutive road games at Arizona and Kansas City in the finale, the Raiders will come out of their bye week with three consecutive home games.

That would theoretically give them the perfect opportunity to ease Mendoza into the lineup should the Raiders not have already made the move to replace Kirk Cousins and they are out of playoff contention.

The first two of those three straight games, however, will be against divisional opponents in the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos, which don’t exactly represent the most ideal matchups.

Otherwise, there aren’t many spots on the schedule that stand out.

The Raiders will have potential for difficult weather conditions against the New York Jets (Nov. 1), Broncos (Nov. 22), Cleveland Browns (Nov. 29) and Chiefs on either Jan. 9 or 10.

Week 18 game day and times have not been set because they will be determined based on relevance following the conclusion of Week 17 games.

They will also play the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Nov. 8 in a game that represents their first regular-season visit to the Bay Area since leaving Oakland for Las Vegas.

Those games will be part of a schedule that represents 21,099 miles traveled, the 12th-most of any NFL team.

The Raiders will head to the Eastern or Central time zone five times this season, but none of those trips will occur in consecutive weeks.

Some of the biggest matchups of the year will be at home, including a Week 6 matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 18.

It will be the first time the Bills play at Allegiant Stadium with fans, marking the official Las Vegas debut of the notorious “Bills Mafia.”

The Los Angeles Rams will follow in Week 7, giving the Raiders the possibility of hosting the potential Super Bowl representatives from each conference in consecutive weeks.

It will be a bit of a friendlier open to the season as the Raiders will begin the campaign with a visit from the Miami Dolphins, meaning Mendoza’s first NFL regular-season game as a member of the Raiders will take place against the team representing his hometown.

It marks the first time the Raiders have played a Week 1 home game since 2021.

Five of the next eight games will be on the road, starting with consecutive trips to Los Angeles to play the Chargers and New Orleans to play the Saints.

That stretch also includes a journey to play the Patriots in Foxborough on Oct. 11, where the Raiders opened the season with a stunning win last year before New England went on to play in the Super Bowl.

The Seattle Seahawks team that beat the Patriots in that game will come to Allegiant Stadium on Nov. 15 with plenty of connections to the Raiders. New coach Klint Kubiak and much of his offensive staff were part of that championship team.

The Raiders will play home preseason games against the Arizona Cardinals (Week 1) and 49ers (Week 3), as well as a road game at Houston on Aug. 20 at 5 p.m. on ESPN.