Not everyone is ready to talk about it, but the Raiders are in a race for one of the top picks in the draft and they have a legitimate chance at the first overall pick.
After the Browns surprising win over the Steelers on Thursday night, the Raiders moved up to the fourth-overall pick, but there are still seven weeks left in the regular season and nine teams are within striking distance of the first overall pick.
The Jaguars (2-9), Titans (2-8), Giants (2-8), Raiders (2-8), Patriots (3-8), Jets (3-8), Browns (3-8), Panthers (3-7) and Cowboys (3-7) are all within a game of the worst record in the NFL and strength of schedule (SOS) is probably going to play a big role in sorting out the top five picks.
By NFL rules, the team that plays the schedule with the lowest winning percentage is awarded the higher pick in draft tiebreaker situations.
For the Raiders, that’s not necessarily a good thing.
As of now, the Raiders have the strongest strength of schedule among teams with two wins on the season.
Looking ahead, the outlook doesn’t get a lot better in terms of schedule strength.
The remaining teams on the Raiders’ schedule have a winning percentage of .514 and that’s a higher winning percentage than the remaining opponents on the schedule for the Jaguars (.333), Titans (.441) and Giants (.500).
In order to finish the season ahead of the any of those teams in the draft, the Raiders will have to avoid an identical record. The Giants could potentially end the season with a stronger strength of schedule, but it isn’t likely.
In order to draft ahead of the Jaguars, Titans and Giants, the Raiders will need to finish a full game behind each respective team in the standings.
We know the tank is on in New York as the Giants announced this week that they are benching Daniel Jones and will be skipping over his backup to start Tommy DeVito for the remainder of the season.
The Jaguars and Titans still play each other twice, so someone is going to get a win in each of those games. The best-case draft scenario for the Raiders would probably be the Jaguars and Titans splitting those games, but it’s noteworthy that the Raiders still have the Jaguars on their schedule. That game in Las Vegas could have huge draft implications.
As for the strength of schedule among teams behind Las Vegas in the draft order, the Patriots (.635) and Browns (.593) have difficult schedules remaining, but they still project to finish the season with a weaker strength of schedule than the Raiders.
The Jets have a weaker SOS than the Raiders going into week 12 and have a weaker SOS going forward. Maybe that’s what Davante Adams likes so much about his situation in New York.
The other dynamic going on right now with the Raiders is the fact that head coach Antonio Pierce is going to do everything he can to rally the team together in the second half of the season. That’s good news for some, but bad news for anyone hoping for the no.1 pick.
Pierce knows his job is on the line and the CBS television broadcast essentially said as much during Sunday’s game in Miami.
“It’s been a week of change for his Raiders team,” CBS commentator Jay Feely said during the broadcast.
“I give Antonio Pierce a lot of credit because it’s not easy as a first-time head coach to make a decision halfway through your first season and say ‘I’m going to fire my offensive coordinator; I’m going to fire my quarterbacks coach and my offensive line coach.’ He was pretty transparent with us. He said because I want to be wearing these colors next year and he felt like now was the time that he needed to make that move.”
It’s a strange situation the Raiders are in right now, and the fan base isn’t clinging as tightly to the ‘Just Win, Baby’ slogan as they have in the past.
Maybe ‘Just Win, Someday’ is the more appropriate term for just one season.
x: @raidersbeat
Stop it with this rhetoric! Winning is the most important thing when there’s no one worthy of a first pick in the draft. There is no blue chip sure thing franchise player.
And when you start popping off about sanders, you really show just how feeble minded you are.
Strength of schedule is just another way for the NFL to stick it to the Raiders because every time the Raiders have the same record as another team the other team picks first you think that at least once the Raiders would pick first !
Looking at the press conference of certain players and coaches, it’s not enough confidence there. We know these guys want to win. Get out there on Sunday and show the fans that you can win. It’s not going to mean anything at this point. Just try to come together as a team. Do something to get us excited.
Oh not to worry, commander tank Menshew will be at the helm. He gives us the best chance to get Ward or Milroe. No I don’t want Saunders. Hey Telesco, not quite sure what you do there but you may want to extend a few contracts before the season is over. Koonce and Spillane come to mind. Just loose baby!