The national media isn't too high on the Las Vegas Raiders going into the 2024 season, as evidenced by where they landed in a recent NFL power rankings.
According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, the Raiders are the No. 26 team in his pre-training camp power rankings, where they land ahead of the Tennessee Titans, New York Giants, Washington Commanders, Arizona Cardinals, New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers.
While that's certainly a poor ranking, Florio does leave the door open for Las Vegas to be better if the team can get "solid quarterback play" from whoever wins the quarterback competition between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell.
There's no question that both quarterbacks carry their own concerns, but lest we forget that the Raiders finished 8-9 last season with a combination of Jimmy Garoppolo and a rookie in O'Connell.
At the very least, Minshew and O'Connell should be better than the rookie version of the latter, and they have no shortage of weapons to throw to. In addition, the Raiders have a very good defense that was upgraded with the addition of Christian Wilkins.
Knowing all that, it's certainly not crazy to think the Raiders could match or better what they did last season en route to ending their playoff drought. That makes Las Vegas a middle-of-the-pack team, at worst, thus the Raiders should be higher in Florio's rankings.
