Raiders 2026 NFL Schedule Released for Fernando Mendoza, Kirk Cousins, Klint Kubiak's 1st Season

It is time for a new era in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Raiders made a number of changes this offseason with the most notable ones coming in the form of a new head coach in Klint Kubiak and two new quarterbacks in Fernando Mendoza and Kirk Cousins. Mendoza is the future as the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NFL draft, but Cousins can provide veteran leadership this year.

The team also added notable players such as Tyler Linderbaum, Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker, among others, and figures to be better prepared to face the schedule it just received as it starts this new era with optimism in place:

Full schedule information available on the team's official website.

Analysis

The 2026 schedule will be one of mixed challenges for the Raiders.

On the one hand, they have to play the NFC West and the AFC East. That means games against the two teams that were in last season's Super Bowl in the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. 

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That also means games against presumed Super Bowl contenders in the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers.

Matchups with those divisions are anything but easy even if games against the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals figure to be more favorable.

On the other hand, a last-place schedule for Las Vegas means its additional matchups are fairly ideal on paper.

It will face the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, which finished a combined 14-37 during the 2025 campaign. While the Raiders themselves were just 3-14, finding a way to take care of business in those contests could go a long way toward determining how much improvement there will be in Las Vegas.

After all, the games against its own division in the AFC West are daunting as well with matchups against franchise quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs), Bo Nix (Denver Broncos) and Justin Herbert (Los Angeles Chargers).

Pivotal Matchups

The Raiders are coming off two straight last-place finishes in the AFC West, and the only way they are going to bounce back in 2026 is with better performances against their divisional foes.

They went 1-5 last season and 0-6 during the 2024 campaign in games against the Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers. Their one win in that span came against Kansas City in last season's finale when Chris Oladokun and Shane Buechele played quarterback instead of the injured Mahomes.

Any breakdown of the most important games for Las Vegas starts with its matchups against the AFC West.

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However, it also needs to take full advantage of the contests against the Titans, Browns, Jets and Dolphins. Those are all teams that could be in the lower-tier in the AFC, and the Raiders are looking to separate themselves from that group moving forward.

While there may not be a realistic path to the playoffs this season for the new-look Raiders given the challenges of playing in an AFC West that has three legitimate contenders, showing promise for the future with young players such as Mendoza, Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty will go a long way toward establishing optimism within the fanbase.

And the best way to show that promise will be to defeat these other potential non-contenders to show they are further along in their rebuilding process than the likes of Cleveland, Tennessee, New York and Miami.

That could set the stage for another important offseason as the Raiders attempt to build a future contender around Mendoza.