Spiral

Good news for Pats fans:

Monte Poole: Oakland Raiders quarterback quandary mirror's team's confusion - Inside Bay Area

Gradkowski separated his shoulder on Sunday.

They're currently at 5-6.

Rest of season:

@ SD
@ Jax
Denver
Indy
@ KC

6-10 seems about right, but 5-11 could happen, depending on Skippy.

JFK

They could beat Denver, KC and Jax. But 6-10 looks like it.

mosi

6-10 seems right. The broncos, buffalo and the entire NFC west should be worse than that so the pick should be somewhere in the middle...

Metaphors

Assume the Broncos lose to the Raiders and CAR/CIN/DET/BUF/DEN are your top 5. Oakland is 1-4 on the road (only beating Denver), including losses to SF and ARZ as well as blowouts against PIT and TEN. So here are the remaining Raider games:

@SD - Revenge game and needed by Bolts for playoff run
@JAX - 3rd roadie in 4 weeks, cross-country trip for 1pm game and Jags need the win for playoffs
IND - Colts will likely need this game to stay ahead of Jags
@KC - Early game with SD playing late, so likely a must win for Chiefs

The Raiders should be significant underdogs in all 4 games. That puts them at 6 wins, likely in a bunch with the following teams:

DAL - 3 wins, potential wins WAS/@ARZ, others @IND/PHI/@PHI
ARZ - 3 wins, others STL/DEN/@CAR/DAL/@SF
CLE - 4 wins, potential wins @BUF/@CIN, others @MIA/BAL/PIT
SF - 4 wins, potential wins SEA/ARZ, others @GB/@SD/@STL
MIN - 4 wins, potential wins BUF/@DET, others NYG/CHI/@PHI

That puts the Raiders at #11 if none of those teams can get to 6 wins. If there are tie-breakers (SOS), here is where they stand now...and likely won't change significantly:

ARZ = .460
OAK = .483
SF = .489
DAL = .523
MIN = .528
CLE = .568

So I would say that the potential for a top 10 pick is pretty solid with my prediction being #8. The key is getting the Browns and Cowboys outside that number since they will likely be competing for Pats-type players.