Chiefs (

21.25) at
Raiders (

15.75)

Game Overview ::

By Mike johnson >>

• Kansas City will once again be starting Chris Oladukun at quarterback after his underwhelming performance on Christmas Day.
• Kenny Pickett is likely to start this game for Las Vegas due to an ankle injury to Geno Smith that has not allowed him to practice this week.
• Tight end Michael Mayer had a massive 36% target share last week with Brock Bowers out of the lineup, but most of those targets were with Smith under center.
• Despite their claims to the contrary, the Raiders have a lot of incentive to not win this game and maintain the top spot in the 2026 NFL Draft.

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How kansas city Will Try To Win ::

The Chiefs season has been a struggle throughout and has only taken turns for the worse in recent weeks. They lost their top-two quarterbacks to torn ACLs in consecutive weeks and now have questions facing them for 2026 as they hope to have franchise cornerstone Patrick Mahomes back in time for training camp. The Chiefs defense has been decent this season and has been a unit that hasn’t been beaten badly all year. Only twice this season has an opponent (DAL and JAX) scored 30+ points against the Chiefs, with the Jaguars needing a defensive touchdown and a last-minute desperation drive to accomplish that. The fact that their defense is solid enough to limit scoring from opponents, especially weaker ones, should allow the Chiefs to play a conservative and ball-control-focused offense this week against the struggling Raiders offense.

The Chiefs will turn to 26-year old Chris Oladokun as their starting quarterback once again this week. Oladokun was thrust into action two weeks ago against the Titans when Gardner Minshew tore his ACL in the first half. Oladokun was someone very few NFL fans even knew existed prior to that week, and his performance in that game on short notice against a dominant Broncos defense left a lot to be desired. Over two games of action, Oladokun has completed 24 of 38 passes (63%) for 177 yards, which comes out to only 4.7 yards per pass attempt. He has thrown one touchdown, zero interceptions, and taken five sacks while only attempting two rushes in each game. Oladokun is the definition of a backup quarterback in the sense that he can run the offense, but things are very conservative to protect him from himself and rely on ball control, field position, and their defense to give them a chance to win games. The best thing we can say about this spot for Oladokun is he has 10 days to prepare for this start against the worst team in the league (who may or may not be trying to lose) after having only four days to prepare for a matchup with the Broncos who are among the best defenses in the league and the current top team in the AFC. The swing in terms of preparation and likelihood of success can’t be understated.

The Chiefs backfield involves three players, with Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco sharing duties and rookie Brashard Smith mixing in on passing downs. Smith caught a touchdown pass last week on a designed play in the red zone. Oladokun’s situations thus far haven’t led to him targeting receivers at a very high rate, as Xavier Worthy, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Hollywood Brown were each targeted only three times against the Broncos elite secondary. They each saw three targets the previous week against the Titans as well. The real story this week for the Chiefs is the potential final game of future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce. I would expect the Chiefs to let Oladokun pass at a much higher rate this week than he did against Denver, and Kelce to be targeted early and often. Kelce saw a 27% target share last week with six targets on 22 Oladokun attempts, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that number is around 35% this week while Oladokun throws the ball 30+ times. The Chiefs are likely to have a lot more offensive success this week than they have against the Titans and Broncos, and Kelce is likely to be the focal point of their attack with nothing else meaningful on the table.

How las vegas Will Try To Win ::