The Raiders are off this week, but that doesn’t mean the games don’t mean anything to them.
As they sit at 2-7, they are among a whole host of teams who have a shot at the number one overall pick.
Two of those teams faced off in Germany today — the Giants and Panthers. That game went final with the Panthers getting the 20-17 OT win. And that’s good news for the Raiders.
On the surface, it looks like it wouldn’t matter considering one team will have a better record regardless, and thus drop out from among the group of two-win teams. But that’s not really the case. Because if teams have the same record, who gets the higher pick is dependent upon strength of schedule.
In this case, the Giants already have a stronger schedule than the Raiders, so they weren’t ahead of them anyway. It’s the Panthers who have a weaker schedule than the Raiders, and therefore the Panthers win ensures they move out of the way of the Raiders.
This means there are four teams still ahead of the Raiders in the draft order as we head into the main slate of Sunday games — Patriots, Jaguars, Saints, and Browns.