Potentially homeless Raiders one of five teams to host London, Mexico City NFL games in 2019 - CBS Sports

The NFL continues to broaden its international horizons, having announced a whopping four games in London for the 2019 season as well as a game in Mexico City. We now know the teams who will be involved in those games, as the league announced on Wednesday the Raiders, Chargers, Rams, Jaguars and Buccaneers would host the five international series games next year. 

That's a very interesting group of teams to send out for home games, but it's also a group that makes a ton of sense. 

The Jaguars are -- we would assume -- obviously going to play in London. Jacksonville plays one home game in London per year, although what will London football fans do without seeing Sir Blake Bortles in 2019? 

The Raiders are increasingly looking like they will be in limbo for next season. The city of Oakland sued the team and NFL over a lease violation, which could speed up the timeline for the Raiders' departure from Oakland. They're slated to play in Las Vegas in 2020, but could be homeless for the 2019 season. Sending them to London for one game (and perhaps more??) would alleviate some of the issues in finding a place to play eight home games. It's possible the league could look into having the Raiders play back-to-back games in London, once as a home team and once as a visitor, although that could create some serious issues when it comes to giving them a competitive advantage. Next year the team could be playing in San Diego, or elsewhere, but it's clear there are going to be stadium issues for the Raiders. London is an easy choice for them. 

The Rams and the Chargers were slated to begin playing in their new Los Angeles stadium, but things aren't progressing quickly on that front. As such, it makes a ton of sense to send the two Los Angeles teams out on international excursions to reduce the number of home games they need to play at the L.A. Coliseum or StubHub Center. Also, the NFL remains committed to getting the L.A.-based teams plenty of publicity and next year both the Rams and Chargers should be attractive teams to international fans. 

The Buccaneers are owned by the Glazer Family, who also own Manchester United. It should be no surprise that Tampa Bay, which does not always feature a jam-packed crowd for home games, would be a logical team to end up playing in an international game. 

If I had to pick, I would guess that either a) the Rams are the Mexico City team to make up for losing their game against the Chiefs this year because of field conditions or b) the Raiders host one game in Mexico City AND serve as a "road" team in London (against the Chargers?), taking care of a quarter of their home schedule when they don't have a home. 

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