With Las Vegas off to an unexpected 2-0 start, the Raiders are starting to gain ground in the NFL's week-to-week hierarchy.
Beating the Miami Dolphins - thought to be one of, if not the, worst teams in the NFL heading into the 2026 season - at home in Week One? A nice, if probably expected, win for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Going into SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, a place where the Raiders had not won since 2020, and handing a fierce AFC West rival a 26-14 defeat? Now we may be talking about something.
Among the most surprised to see the Raiders improve to 2-0 while the Chargers dropped to 0-2 was Los Angeles All-Pro safety Derwin James, who used the word "trash" to describe his team's performance on Sunday, according to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
Because of these early results, some of the outlets that are the arbiters of the league's weekly power rankings are applying some helium to the Raiders' name.
At the mothership, Nick Shook of NFL.com moved the Raiders from 29th to 22nd in his Week Three rankings that were released Tuesday morning, saying, "They aren’t anywhere near perfection, but they’re undefeated after two weeks and winning in new coach Klint Kubiak’s intended fashion: playing opportunistic, scrappy defense and capitalizing on opponents' mistakes."
Being ranked 22nd this week continues the Raiders' upward trajectory at NFL.com as Shook had the squad 31st in the Preseason, and a static 29th before Weeks One and Two. Tuesday's seven-spot jump was also the third-largest on Shook's list, joining the New Orleans Saints (21st to 14th), Minnesota Vikings (22nd to 15th) and Indianapolis Colts (26th to 19th). The Cleveland Browns were the biggest gainer, going from 27th to 17th while the Carolina Panthers advanced nine spots from 32nd to 23rd.
At The Athletic, Josh Kendall and Chad Graff saw enough in the Raiders' Week Two performance to move them from 27th to 22nd in their rankings.
Ranking the Raiders highest in this survey after Week Two was the NFL Analyst panel at Bleacher Report, consisting of Gary Davenport, Kris Knox, Maurice Moton and Brent Sobleski. They have the Silver-and-Black ranked 20th, though they did start from a higher position, as they stood 24th after Week One.
After calling the Raiders an "unstoppable juggernaut" in tongue-in-cheek fashion, Davenport did add that, "2-0 is 2-0 - Kirk Cousins flat outplayed Justin Herbert. Wide receiver Tre Tucker roasted a supposedly solid Chargers defense. The Vegas defense allowed just 14 points and forced three turnovers."
Davenport also did apply a bit of a damper to the 2-0 start, noting that the Raiders' next five games feature visits from the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams with a trip to the New England Patriots thrown in for good measure.
Before that gauntlet begins, however, Las Vegas will travel to the crescent City to face the Saints on Sunday. New Orleans is another pleasant early-season surprise after opening with a highly competitive 31-30 overtime loss at the Detroit Lions before defeating the Baltimore Ravens 24-17 on the road. That has helped them attain a ranking of 13th by Bleacher Report, 14th by NFL.com and 15th by The Athletic.
It also means the Raiders must avoid overlooking the Saints in what some have taken to calling a potential trap game since it comes before the likely 3-0 Chiefs, who visit the winless Miami Dolphins on Sunday, visit Allegiant Stadium for an early-season AFC West showdown on Sunday, Oct. 4. Game time for the Raiders in New Orleans on Sunday is 1:35 p.m. PT.
