Let’s take another look at those draft prospects and where the San Francisco 49ers stand.
We’re near the midpoint of the 2018 NFL San Francisco 49ers season and as I said in the first post I did on this: San Francisco 49ers are out of lives and continues. There are no coins to insert in continuing this either, it’s time to look at a rooting guide for 2019 draft positioning.
The 49ers right now share a single win with the New York Giants, Oakland Raiders, and Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals in particular will end that share on Sunday when the 49ers go to Arizona in their second game of the year. That leaves the Giants and Raiders in the way of draft dominance.
The Giants continue to look awful while former coach Ben McAdoo looks like a football savant. Why? He’s the one who had the cojones to bench Eli Manning in 2017. While his method of doing so was ill-advised (and what cost him his job as head coach of the Giants), you have to admit his head was in the right place. The Giants recently made themselves the doormat of the Atlanta Falcons, a team that shared a single win with the 49ers until recently (running into the Giants helps this problem). If things end today, the Giants will have the No. 1 pick and that can be solidified in the Week 10 Monday Night Football matchup against the 49ers.
The Raiders have had a fire sale of sorts after the Khalil Mack trade, shipping Amari Cooper off to the Dallas Cowboys for a first round draft pick. They have a game this week against the Indianapolis Colts, a game that can drive the Colts off from interfering in the first pick sweepstakes. The Raiders also decide things this Thursday as they will play the 49ers for Thursday Night Football in a battle for draft positioning.
We’ll see where all these things go when the 49ers play the Cardinals. If the 49ers beat the Cardinals and then the Raiders on Thursday, you can kiss that first round pick goodbye (as you should, wins are much better for this team). Until then, the 49ers are in the thick of things. If they beat the Cardinals, then the Raiders, and then the Giants, we’re talking about a pick in the top-10, rather than the top-3.
Below are the games you should care about:
Colts (2-5) at Raiders (1-5): Raiders — The 49ers will need to get some surplus wins on their opponents. Given that they face the Raiders four days later, it would be a lot better if the Raiders had an extra win under their belt. That’s asking an awful lot from a team not only devastated from injuries, but also trades.
Washington (4-2) at Giants (1-6): Giants— Giants are bad. They need wins, given this is a divisional game, things could change in their favor. Washington got punked pretty bad a few weeks ago against the New Orleans Saints, so maybe the Giants can surprise.
New England Patriots (5-2) at Buffalo Bills (2-5): Bills — The Bills are awful and need another win or two to be out of the first pick sweepstakes. Given that it’s New England, I wouldn’t be surprised if they get blown out. But still,go bills.
Cleveland Browns (2-4-1) at Pittsburgh Steelers (3-2-1) : Browns — I don’t need to reiterate how the Browns always ruin plans for a team, any team in the NFL to have first pick in the draft.
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