When it comes to the Raiders, we’re usually talking draft order somewhere around Halloween. As it stands, a win on Sunday and the Raiders will match their best regular season finish since 2002.
The Sunday night game has no influence on their draft position, meaning Oakland will know their draft slot by the end of the afternoon games. With a win, they could draft as low as 19th. For this to happen, Buffalo, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Atlanta would all have to lose – Oakland would also have to drop below Atlanta in strength of schedule (unlikely considering .026 difference) which makes 18th more likely in that scenario.
With a Raiders loss (making them 7-9), the tie breaker becomes more complicated. Ten teams are guaranteed to finish with a worse record than the Raiders. Four 6-9 teams play head-to-head (meaning two will lose) and the Buccaneers are out of reach in terms of strength of schedule. The Saints and Giants (both 6-9) are each within .005 of Oakland in terms of strength of schedule which means the 12-15 spots could be decided by the slimmest of margins.
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