Fooch's update: This will serve as our PM game thread as well.
The San Francisco 49ers are in action Sunday morning, facing the St. Louis Rams at 10 a.m. PT. The 49ers enter the game 2-5, and are struggling in a big way. They had the win over the Baltimore Ravens, but it has otherwise been a pretty rough slog over the last month. They could certainly shock people and turn things around, but odds are pretty good they are competing for fairly high draft positioning.
The 49ers "improved" from No. 12 to No. 9 in 2016 NFL Draft order with last week's loss to the Seattle Seahawks. This week, they face an improving 3-3 Rams team, which could result in another bump in draft order. There are plenty of pertinent games on the schedule that can impact the order. Here is where that order stands through seven weeks, going down to No. 12 and the 2-4 teams.
1. Baltimore Ravens (1-6)
2. Detroit Lions (1-6)
3. Tennessee Titans (1-5)
4. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-5)
5. Cleveland Browns (2-5)
6. Houston Texans (2-5)
7. Kansas City Chiefs (2-5)
8. San Diego Chargers (2-5)
9. San Francisco 49ers (2-5)
10. Chicago Bears (2-4)
11. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-4)
12. Dallas Cowboys (2-4)
There are 12 games on Sunday, and then Monday Night Football. The two prime time games will not impact the top of the draft order, but plenty of other games will. I've posted the full schedule with records down below. In the group below, we're generally rooting for the teams in bold. The two "big" games would be the Lions-Chiefs, Chargers-Ravens and Titans-Texans. They feature teams that are both higher than the 49ers in the draft order. I'd lean toward rooting for the Lions, Ravens and Titans. The 49ers would likely not move ahead of any of them with those teams winning (due to strength of schedule), but it would tighten up the group even further. And with the 49ers still facing the Lions, Bears and Browns amongst this group of bad teams, all kinds of possibilities still exist.
49ers (2-5) @ Rams (3-3)
Lions (1-6) @ Chiefs (2-5)
Buccaneers (2-4) @ Falcons (6-1)
Cardinals (5-2) @ Browns (2-5)
Giants (4-3) @ Saints (3-4)
Vikings (4-2) @ Bears (2-4)
Chargers (2-5) @ Ravens (1-6)
Bengals (6-0) @ Steelers (4-3)
Titans (1-5) @ Texans (2-5)
Jets (4-2) @ Raiders (3-3)
Seahawks (3-4) @ Cowboys (2-4)
Packers (6-0) @ Broncos (6-0)
Colts (3-4) @ Panthers (6-0)