The release of the 2024 schedule revealed that the Las Vegas Raiders will open their campaign against the Los Angeles Chargers, a team that sports a new head coach in Jim Harbaugh, who is making the jump back to the NFL after several years at Michigan.
This isn’t the Raiders’ first rodeo when it comes to facing a new head coach in the first week of the season. In fact, Las Vegas has had this situation a total of five times since the 2000 campaign.
In those games, the Raiders are a perfect 5-0, with victories against Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos in 2023, Matt Rhule and the Carolina Panthers in 2020, Vic Fangio and the Broncos in 2019, John Fox and the Broncos in 2011, and then Dick Vermeil and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2001, according to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.
The last time the Raiders lost to a new head coach in Week 1 came in 1999, when Ray Rhodes and the Green Bay Packers beat them.
#Raiders face Jim Harbaugh in his 1st game as Chargers coach. How Raiders fared in Week 1 vs new coaches since 2000:
17-16 W vs Sean Payton 2023
34-30 W vs Matt Rhule 2020
24-16 W vs Vic Fangio 2019
23-20 W vs John Fox 2011
27-24 W vs Dick Vermeil 2001(Last loss was 28-24 to…
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) May 17, 2024
Las Vegas did lose to interim head coach Jeff Saturday in his first game as the lead man with the Indianapolis Colts in 2022, but, of course, that game was in Week 15, not Week 1.
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The Chargers aren’t expected to do much in 2024 as the team transitions into a new era and rebuilds its offense, but they’re always going to be a tough out with quarterback Justin Herbert at the helm.
The Raiders are catching them at the perfect time, though, as teams with a new head coach often need multiple games (and sometimes most or all of the first season) to get fully acclimated to a new system.
