The Raiders enjoyed a Week 6 bye week as they saw several AFC contenders lose. But how much did that actually impact their chances of making the playoffs? The answer might surprise you.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the Raiders saw their playoff chances dip from 18 percent going into Week 6 to 16 percent. That is mostly due to other teams just getting some wins, like the Jets, Steelers, Chargers, Patriots, etc.
However, their odds of winning the AFC West actually increased by a few percentage points. It helps that both the Chiefs and the Broncos lost, but it also doesn’t hurt the Chargers certainly didn’t look great this week either. All four teams in the division have major flaws and no one has run away with the West after six games.
It’s still pretty unlikely that the Raiders will be able to fight their way back and win the AFC West, but anything is possible. There are still a ton of division games left and both the Chargers and Chiefs have tough schedules ahead of them.
But before the Raiders start worrying about the division, they need to get back to .500. And that starts by getting a win over the Texans in Las Vegas in Week 7.
