Las Vegas Raiders (3-12) @ New Orleans Saints (5-10)
Sunday, December 29, 1:00 PM ET
Well, we go from a loaded slate of NFL games with playoff implications to the “Derek Carr Bowl” which doesn’t even feature Derek Carr. Heck, it’s not even the Dennis Allen Bowl.
The Raiders won on Sunday afternoon, losing their spot in line for the 2025 NFL Draft and actually moving way further down the board than expected as a result of it. The Raiders dropped to the 6th overall spot in the 2025 NFL Draft order after their win against the Jaguars on Sunday, but they are still one of five teams with 12 losses already this season (the Giants have 13) so anything can happen.
Going to New Orleans, the Raiders are going to be facing off against one of the most battered and beaten-up teams in the NFL – the New Orleans Saints. The Saints are borderline unrecognizable from the roster we saw at the start of this season which put up a whopping 91 points in the first two weeks and was in the top five overall of our NFL Power Rankings at the time.
Crazy how things can change in the NFL, isn’t it?
Somewhat shockingly, the Saints are 2.5-point favorites in this game. I actually don’t hate the Raiders this week in an “upset”. Aidan O’Connell has got some NFL-level chops. I don’t know that he’s going to be the starter for Vegas beyond this season, but he’s going to be highly paid for a long time as a coveted backup or rental starter for teams.
And in this small vacuum we’re in at the end of the 2024 season, the combo of O’Connell and Brock Bowers is enough to give me confidence that the Raiders are going to ruin their 2025 NFL Draft status even further.
The Saints will creep closer to the top five overall picks in the 2025 NFL Draft after this weekend.
Prediction: Raiders win 23-19