The gap in recent history between these two is stark. New England went 14-3 last season, won the AFC East, and rolled through the Chargers, Texans and Broncos in the playoffs before running into a buzzsaw in Super Bowl LX, where Seattle's defense buried them 29-13. Las Vegas, meanwhile, finished 2025 at 3-14 — worst record in the league on a tiebreaker — which is exactly how it ended up with the No. 1 pick it spent on Mendoza. Kubiak's job now is turning that into something watchable, with a heavier workload for Ashton Jeanty and a healthy Brock Bowers as building blocks.
Neither team gets here with a blank schedule. The Raiders open the regular season against San Francisco and have dates with Miami, the Chargers, the Saints and a rematch with Kansas City before they ever see New England. The Patriots have their own gauntlet — Pittsburgh, Jacksonville and a trip to Buffalo among six games sandwiched in before this one — so whatever shape either team is in by mid-October may look nothing like training camp suggests right now.
Keep an eye on the skill-position rooms too. A.J. Brown sat out New England's preseason opener but has been the standout of camp practices, building rapport with Maye that the Patriots hope carries into the regular season. Las Vegas countered by signing veteran receiver Noah Brown to a group that already includes Jack Bech, who caught a touchdown in the preseason opener against Arizona, and speedster Tre Tucker — collectively giving whoever wins the quarterback job some things to throw to.
By the time these two actually meet at 1:00 PM ET on Sunday, October 11, both rosters could look meaningfully different than they do in the middle of August. That's the nature of previewing a game this far out — the storylines that matter right now are the ones worth watching resolve over the next several weeks.