With so much going on with the Antonio Brown drama, actually getting down to making predictions for this season was on the back burner. But that’s finally over now. It didn’t end how anyone had hoped (except Antonio Brown and the Patriots), but it’s over and it’s time to shift our focus to the team the Raiders WILL be putting on the field this season.

With that, here’s my game-by-game and season prediction for the 2019 Raiders.

WEEK 1: Denver Broncos (Monday Night Football)

The Broncos should be one of the worst teams in the league this season. With Joe Flacco at quarterback, he won’t be much of an upgrade over what they had last season. Even with the Raiders reeling from the Antonio Brown debacle, they will welcome the Broncos to Oakland by beating them on Monday Night Football.

Result: W (1-0)

WEEK 2: Kansas City Chiefs

The Raiders are better but the Chiefs are still arguably the best team in football. Pat Mahomes is the reigning MVP.

Result: L (1-1)

WEEK 3: At Minnesota Vikings

It’s off to Minnesota to face another very talented team on both sides of the ball. Kirk Cousins isn’t a world-beater, but he has some outstanding weapons at his disposal in Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, and Dalvin Cook.

Result: L (1-2)

WEEK 4: At Indianapolis Colts

With Luck, the Colts were a very good team. Without him, not so much. I don’t know if you heard Luck retired. With Luck out of Indianapolis, the Colts are out of luck.

Result: W (2-2)

WEEK 5: Chicago Bears (in London)

It off to London for the third time since 2014. That season Derek Carr and Khalil Mack were budding star rookies for the Raiders. Now they will face each other. The Raiders lost both of their last two trips across the pond and I see that happening again. I also see Mack tearing it up against his former team.

Result: L (2-3)

WEEK 6: BYE

WEEK 7: At Green Bay Packers

Another long road trip, though much shorter than the one they took before the bye. This is Aaron Rodgers’ house They head to Green Bay for their

Result: L (2-4)

WEEK 8: at Houston Texans

By this point the Raiders haven’t played in front of their home crowd in Oakland in nearly two months. It’s also their fifth consecutive game with a 10am Pacific time start. All the road stints take their toll.

Result: L (2-5)

WEEK 9: Detroit Lions

The Raiders return home to Oakland and they are greeted by their easiest opponent since the season opener.

Result: W (3-5)

WEEK 10: Los Angeles Chargers (Thursday Night Football)

Once again the Chargers have a lot of injuries. But most of those players will be back and healthy by this point in the season. And they could be well rested as well. This is still the same Chargers team that beat up on the Raiders in both of their meetings last season and they are talented enough to challenge the Chiefs for division supremacy. The Raiders are not.

Result: L (3-6)

WEEK 11: Cincinnati Bengals

Back home again and back to a team they should be able to knock around a little with Vontaze Burfict and Paul Guenther extra motivated against their former team.

Result: W (4-6)

WEEK 12: At New York Jets

This is a tough call. Even with the Jets supposedly being a weak team. They have Darnold entering his second season, and they added Le’Veon Bell and C.J. Mosley. It’s yet another East Coast game and therefore a 10 am start. I think this one comes down to something else. Perhaps injury being that it’s late in the season? For now, though, I’m gonna give the Raiders the nod.

Result: W (5-6)

WEEK 13: At Kansas City Chiefs

Yeah, no. Arrowhead is Carr’s house of horrors. I won’t predict he will win there until he does. And he hasn’t. He has never even come close.

Result: L (5-7)

WEEK 14: Tennessee Titans

While I am not so sure there is actually a QB competition between Marcus Mariota and Ryan Tannehill, the mere fact that this was a discussion this offseason is an indication of how much Mariota has struggled to get his career off the ground and how much he needs to step it up. Also, we can trash Tannehill all day, but he has never lost to the Raiders. That’s right, he is a perfect 3-0 against the Raiders in his career, including last season. So, either Mariota will find his career or the Raider-killer Tannehill steps in.

Result: L (5-8)

WEEK 15: Jacksonville Jaguars

Playing an out of division team in the final game in the Oakland Coliseum is rather anti-climactic, but whatever. They should get up for this one like they did against the Broncos last season when they thought it might be their last game there.

Result: W (6-8)

WEEK 16: At Los Angeles Chargers

The Raiders go from their own farewell to the Coliseum to the Chargers’ farewell to StubHub. It doesn’t have quite the same significance to it, but I expect the Chargers to win again as the Raiders come down from their high from the big Oakland goodbye.

Result: L (6-9)

WEEK 17: At Denver Broncos

A Mile High is the dead of winter is no joke. Flacco has played a lot of cold weather games during his time in Baltimore. Neither team is playing spoiler so neither has anything to lose or gain.

Prediction: L (6-10)

Final 2019 record: 6-10