The NFL is set to release the 2026 regular season schedule on Thursday, and has become the trend, the next 24 hours will be saturated with rumors and leaks to build engagement ahead of the 8 PM EST release.
With the announcement that the Chiefs and Broncos will play in week 1, the Raiders lost two potential opponents for their season opener, and that could mean the Raiders will stay in the division and face the Chargers in week 1.
Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers said he thinks there is a good chance the Raiders play in the division for their season opener, be he also mentioned another rumor that has been floating around the last day.
“I feel like it’ll be a division opponent that they play, so I think that it’s a good chance it’ll be the Chargers since that’s the only team that’s left in the AFC West,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast on Wednesday.
“But I’ll pass this along and I’m not reporting this as factual. I’m just passing it along because it was passed along to me and this happened on this podcast many years ago… [we] got a text on our Locked On Raider podcast voicemail text line that said, ‘Hey, the first game of the year is going to be the Raiders hosting the Baltimore Ravens at Allegiant Stadium Monday night football. And I thought, ‘Okay, that sounds good’ … and so we kind of took it with a grain of salt.”
And then we also got the same tip that the first-round draft pick is going to be Alex Leatherwood. Well, sure enough, both of those tips came through to fruition. So again, I’m not saying that this is what the case is, but on Tuesday, on my radio show the text line said, and this is all in caps, ‘It’s confirmed from my insider info, Buffalo at Las Vegas, week one, September 13.’ Remember that was all in caps.
So that’s a Sunday. And that would be the Buffalo Bills, who do play the Raiders as a home game in 2026…”
Myers said he didn’t know where the information was coming from, but an Instagram graphic predicting the game had nearly 5,000 ‘likes’ as of Wednesday morning – so that could have been the origin of the rumor.
For what it’s worth, week 1 games are almost always leaked ahead of the official release, so the wait isn’t going to be long.
What we know already, though, is that the Raiders won’t be playing overseas this year.
And congratulations to the Rams and 49ers, both from California, who travel to Melbourne, Australia to play their season opener on September 11.
