Previewing Steelers’ 2024 Opponents: Las Vegas Raiders

With the 2024 NFL schedule announced, I want to go through each of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ opponents and dive deep into the makeup of each team, including a recap of their offseason moves, key storylines to watch, and their series history against the Steelers. Today we will be looking at Week 6 against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Along with the Indianapolis Colts, the Raiders are the only other repeat opponent from the 2023 season outside of the division. Both teams look quite a bit different from their matchup a year ago. The Steelers have Russell Wilson and the Raiders have Gardner Minshew or Aidan O’Connell. Either way, it will be different than a year ago with Jimmy Garappolo. They are also without their leading rusher from last year’s game, with Josh Jacobs signing with the Green Bay Packers in free agency.

The Raiders’ backfield is going from a true bell cow running back to a committee consisting of Zamir White, Alexander Mattison, and Ameer Abdullah. The Raiders will be hosting in Las Vegas, so the Steelers will be making that trip for the second straight year. Let’s hope there is no repeat of the emergency landing that took place after last year’s game.

Here is a summary of their most significant additions and departures from this offseason:

Additions:
– WR Michael Gallup
– OG Cody Whitehair
– OT Andrus Peat
– DT Christian Wilkins
– QB Gardner Minshew
– RB Alexander Mattison

Departures:
– QB Jimmy Garoppolo
– RB Josh Jacobs
– DT Bilal Nichols
– OT Jermaine Eluemunor
– WR Hunter Renfrow
– CB Amik Robertson

Draft Class:
– TE Brock Bowers
– OG Jackson Powers-Johnson
– OT DJ Glaze
– CB Decamerion Richardson
– ILB Tommy Eichenberg
– RB Dylan Laube
– S Trey Taylor
– CB M.J. Devonshire

Either way you cut it, the offense is going to look a lot different than last year, with changes at the two positions that touch the ball most frequently. They also have a new head coach in Antonio Pierce, whom the players rallied behind for a strong finish to the 2023 season. He hired a new coaching staff, with Luke Getsy coming over from the Chicago Bears.

The Steelers should be able to get some good intel from Justin Fields on Getsy’s offense, as the pair worked together over the last two seasons.

The defense will still be called by defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, and they should remain a competitive unit with Maxx Crosby the defensive captain.

There will be several interesting matchups and storylines to track in this game, but I will be paying a little extra attention to Jackson Powers-Johnson at guard and loosely comparing his performance to Zach Frazier at center. Powers-Johnson was a very popular name linked to the Steelers in the pre-draft process.

Raiders 2023 record: 8-9
Raiders three-year split: 24-27
Raiders-Steelers series record: 17-15 (Raiders)
Series record in Las Vegas (Oakland/LA): 11-6 (Raiders)
Most recent matchup: 23-18 Steelers (2023)

Raiders 2023 by the numbers:
Offense–
Scoring:  19.5 PPG (23rd)
Passing: 198.8 Yds/G (23rd)
Rushing: 90.7 Yds/G (30th)

Defense–
Scoring: 18.1 PPG (9th)
Passing: 212.4 Yds/G (12th)
Rushing: 118.5 Yds/G (21st)