Oakland Raiders Look Like Early Favorite to Be NFL's Worst Team of 2015

The Oakland Raiders stormed into the 2015 regular season with a lot of promise, and perhaps with even more hope.

They had an offense full of exciting young players like quarterback Derek Carr, receiver Amari Cooper and running back Latavius Murray. The defense, led by linebacker Khalil Mack, showcased one of the more impressive pass-rushing units (rated second overall in that category by Pro Football Focus) of the preseason.

With a veteran head coach like Jack Del Rio running the show, the Raiders wouldn't be building for the future, they would be competing in the AFC West now.

Not even a week ago, Andy Furillo of the Sacramento Bee predicted Oakland would make the playoffs with a 9-7 record. Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News predicted some early upsets and an 8-8 record. Even ESPN's Skip Bayless seemed to believe that the Raiders would begin turning the corner in 2015:

Before Sunday's embarrassing 33-13 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, there was little reason to believe that any of these projections held water. There is still a chance they can hit the mark, of course. However, after Sunday's loss, it seems highly unlikely that Oakland is any closer than a year away.

The harsh reality is that the Raiders looked like they could be the worst team in the NFL.

With all due (dis)respect to the Cleveland Browns, the Raiders were definitely the most painful team to watch Sunday.

Yes, the Raiders lost starting quarterback Derek Carr for the game with a hand injury. The Browns lost their starter, too. The Browns were also on the road while the Raiders were hosting a team coming from the other side of the country.

The Browns killed themselves with turnovers (five of them) and penalties (a whopping 12 for 109 yards). The Raiders shot themselves in the foot with good old-fashioned poor execution. Things were so bad that defensive end Justin Tuck took it upon himself to apologize to the audience:

The Raiders averaged just 4.0 yards per play on offense and converted on just three of 12 third-down attempts. The Oakland defense allowed 396 yards of total offense and failed to produce a single turnover.

Mack and that pass rush which looked so promising in the preseason couldn't even come close to landing a sack. What might be even more troubling is the fact that Oakland couldn't put itself onto the scoreboard until late into garbage time. 

Tackling and blocking was sloppy. The play-calling, especially from offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, was uninspired and ineffective. In the end, it all added up to make history. 

Cincinnati had never won in Oakland before.

In fact, the best news to come out of the day for Oakland just might be that Carr's X-rays came back negative, per Bleacher Report's Jason Cole:

After the game, Marcus Thompson II of the San Jose Mercury News explained just how disheartening the performance was:

"

The Raiders got utterly humiliated. And not by New England or Seattle. They were thoroughly outclassed by a Bengals crew that has yet to win a playoff game. What's going to happen against Denver? Green Bay? Kansas City? Heck, next week's game vs. Baltimore feels like a pipe dream.

It's hard not to conclude these are the same ol' Raiders. And they're going to have to prove they've changed on the field, in regular season games, before we can truly believe it.

"

The reality that the Raiders will have to keep proving themselves throughout the season is why a league-worst record feels like a realistic possibility. 

Oakland has to prove itself in the AFC West, a division that had three teams finish with nine or more wins last season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers—another team that looked pretty darn awful on Sunday—gets to play in division where a 7-8-1 records took the crown in 2014.

	Avg Yds Per Offensive Play	Time of Possession	First-Half Points	Yds Surrendered on Defense
Browns	5.1	31:40	10	333
Buccaneers	4.3	28:30	7	309
Raiders	4.0	27:28	0	396

The Raiders also have a brutal nondivision schedule that features the rugged AFC North and NFC North. Right now, the only easy out between the two divisions appears to be the Browns. Yet, the Browns might even be a tough matchup because the game requires the Raiders to travel to Cleveland.

The other two winnable games on Oakland's schedule come against the Tennessee Titans and the New York Jets. Each of those teams won their openers by a minimum of three touchdowns.

No, there do not appear to be any gimmie games on Oakland's schedule, especially considering how bad the team looked against Cincinnati. On top of everything, the Raiders will have to play the season under the cloud of a potential relocation. 

Even if players don't want to admit a potential move to Los Angeles is a distraction, it surely is. 

"You can’t really think about it, because it’s not like Coach (Jack) Del Rio’s saying anything about it to us in meetings,” receiver Brice Butler said, via Pedro Moura of the Orange County Register. “That’s what the fans talk about, and that’s what (owner) Mark (Davis) and the guys who make those decisions are focusing on. We, on this level, it doesn’t affect us.”

Just ask any elder Browns fan how that attitude tends to work out. 

The more the Raider struggle, the more the talk of a move is likely to take over the proverbial conversation. This, in turn, could lead to a bigger distraction—and continued struggles. 

"It's the first game. We can't cry right now," receiver Michael Crabtree said, via the Associated Press' Josh Dubow. "We got 15 more games. It's the first game. We lost bad. We're going to go back to the lab."

If the Raiders cannot find a way to turn things around quickly, they may not do it at all in 2105. This could leave Oakland looking at its options with the No. 1 overall pick in 2016.