Oakland Raiders Down to 4th in ESPN's NFL Power Rankings

Week 15 edition of where the Oakland Raiders land on ESPN’s NFL Power Rankings.

We’ve been tracking each week how ESPN is ranking the Oakland Raiders in their NFL Power Rankings. They floated just outside of the top ten for the first half of the season, have been around the top five lately, and were ranked as high as 2nd after moving to 9-2 on the season.

ESPN somehow felt the need to drop the Raiders to 3rd after they beat Buffalo, moving to 10-3. And after a loss to the Chiefs, Oakland has dropped one more spot — to 4th.

Here is what ESPN had to say about their ranking:

Derek Carr posted a career-worst 9.4 Total QBR in Week 14 against the Chiefs. Why did Carr struggle so much? Was it his finger? The cold? The Chiefs’ defense? We’ll uncover some answers when the Raiders head to San Diego in Week 15.

I’m actually surprised ESPN didn’t drop the Raiders further, considering they dropped them the week before even though they won. So in a loss, I figured a decent-size slide was coming.