Silver Minings: NFL expected to drop ‘Monday Night Football’ Week 1 doubleheader

The Raiders were often part of the recent tradition

It appears a recent NFL tradition is going away as part of the new 17-game schedule.

NFL king pin Peter King reported this week that the league is expected to dump its Week 1 Monday Night Football doubleheader on ESPN this September. Instead, there will be two Saturday games with playoff implications in the final weekend of the regular season. Of course, that schedule will be fluid and things nay change.

In the old format, the NFL would have two games on Monday night to open the season. The back end of the doubleheader usually involved teams on the West Coast. The Raiders played in that slot on multiple occasions over the years.

It was always a fun way to end opening weekend. Now however, it seems like it will just be another memory.

In other Raiders links:

• Slater is the pick: Mike Tannebaum of ESPN has the Raiders taking Northwestern tackle Rashawn Slater at No. 17. That would be tremendous, but I don’t see Slater being on the board that low.
• Yikes: PFF thinks the Raiders were the worst team since 2010 in picking in the first round.
• Bonus time: Some Raiders are getting nice bonuses.
• Gruden trades: The Athletic looks at the draft trades under Jon Gruden in the past three years.