Peter King of NBC Sports recently visited Raiders’ practice, meeting with head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock. In his most recent piece, he discussed some of the things he saw, including a refocused Maxx Crosby and second-year wide receiver Henry Ruggs.
King ultimately gave his thoughts on where the Raiders would finish in 2021 and how the season would ultimately play out. Here is a two-line snippet of his thoughts from the piece:
“Prediction? Mark me down for 8-9. Tough schedule, plus the need for the young players is so big. Lots of question marks here.”
One of the most noteworthy things from the piece was King making the prediction that 14 players on rookie contracts could be starting for the Raiders. While that could obviously change over the next few weeks, that has to be the largest number in the NFL.
This is an extremely young team and the Raiders are counting on several of their recent draft picks to improve in order to get to eight or nine wins. This team is full of question marks and we may not know some of the answers until Week 1 of the regular season gets here.
But as of now, the Raiders are one of the biggest wild cards in the AFC.