One way the NFL tries to promote parity is by managing schedules in a way that creates matchups between the best teams from one season to the next, but also as games in which the worst teams play against each other.

In other words, if you finished last in your division, you are guaranteed to play games against fellow division cellar dwellers across the league. The same is true for division winners and so on and so forth.

But even with the NFL trying to give breaks to its weaker teams, there’s no guarantee it happens. Which is why the Raiders, who finished tied for the worst record overall in the NFL last year, are playing one of the 10 toughest schedules in the league this year.

It’s all predicated on the win-loss percentages from the previous season.

It’s just the Raiders’ luck that, as part of the NFL’s rotational divisional match-up format, which is set years in advance, they lined up this year against the NFC West and AFC East. Those divisions boast five teams that made the playoffs, and of course, they will face their AFC West rival Broncos and Chargers twice each this year as well.

Both of those teams made the postseason as well.

In all, the rebuilding Raiders will play nine games against teams that made the playoffs last year.

That is a daunting task for a team under the leadership of new head coach Klint Kubiak and very likely playing a rookie quarterback in Fernando Mendoza for the bulk of the season.

It’s probably why the NFL opted against giving the Raiders a single prime-time game this year.

It’s been eight years since the Raiders played a regular-season game in the Bay Area, their former home. That will all change when they visit the 49ers in Santa Clara. It’s a game their former Northern California neighbors fought to keep in California, and it offers both franchises a chance to state their case to their fans in that region. Nevertheless, these teams are simply on different planes at the moment. Tough task for the Raiders against one of the best teams in the league.

Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos