Ok so then you're only 28th in line for departure! Plus then you made it to RDU in time for brunch!

Looking at JFK/RDU right now the earliest flight is at 810-1012. 2h2m. But it's listed that way for every day of the week.

So the padding not needed on Sunday morning, but that padding probably is pretty accurate for Monday morning.

I suppose the other option would be having different block times depending on the day of the week but, I think that would look even weirder.