Las Vegas Raiders have the luxury of playing Monday night, which means they can watch the results of Week 11 before participating. This is usually an advantage for teams with playoff hopes or tied in their division, but the Raiders find their own way to take advantage of it.
They’re last in the AFC West, and they can’t even sniff the playoffs. That means the only thing they’re realistically playing for is a higher draft pick, which is a bit of an oxymoron considering the only way they can improve on that pick is to lose, but I digress.
Last week, the Raiders benefited from numerous teams pulling off upset wins that improved their chances of landing a high draft pick. Unfortunately, the opposite happened this week, and every team that was supposed to lose did.
That means the Raiders are stuck at 6th overall, with their only hope of a top-five finish being if one of these teams pulls off another huge upset win. Unfortunately for the Raiders, they have to hope for reality to come true, while now losing every game.
It’s not like the Raiders have had a hard time losing this season; their 2-7 record reflects that, but they’ve had some close calls that never went their way. Their losses to the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars were all by 3 points or less.
Lose to the Dallas Cowboys It’s something the Raiders are more than capable of doing, but they still have the Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans and New York Giants on their schedule. These are all games where if Geno Smith and the Raiders offense shows up, they can beat these teams.
A third win for the Raiders could push them down to the 10th pick, which would hurt their rebuild. Even if taking another offensive player would be a bad decision in the 2026 NFL Draft for the Raiders, get a defensive player of the same caliber as Ashton Jeanty would help them enormously.
This becomes exponentially more difficult at the 10th overall pick. They can find a gem four places away, but it would be best if they don’t take that risk. The Raiders need to keep pace with other teams vying for a top pick if they want next season’s outlook to be better.
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