At 2-8, the Oakland Raiders are tied for the worst record in the league. Just don’t talk about their potential draft position with Derek Carr.
Carr spoke about the final games of the season. He made it clear that he’s not interested in the Raiders having a good draft pick.
Derek Carr on the next six games: “I want to mess up the draft. I don’t want the first pick. I want to win and have people be mad at me for that.”
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) November 21, 2018
This might be the greatest difference between players and many fans.
Oakland obviously isn’t going to the playoffs. As such, it’s understandable for their fans to want to see the Raiders lose. With Oakland all but eliminated, what good would a strong finish do now? The worst place to be in sports is generally not good enough to make the playoffs, but not bad enough to pick high in the draft.
But for players, especially those with non-guaranteed deals, things change. Carr knows that the high draft pick could be used to select his replacement. Even if not, this could be his final year with the Raiders, anyway. If that’s the case, these final games are part of his audition tape. That applies to the rest of the roster, as well.
Despite that, we like Oakland’s chances to get the No. 1 pick. Remaining on the schedule are road games against the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals, home games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos, and both a home and road game with the Kansas City Chiefs. Other than the Broncos, every one of those teams is .500 or better.
So, while Carr might want to mess Oakland’s draft position up, he’ll have his work cut out for him.