Welcome to bye week Sunday! The San Francisco 49ers are off this week, which means we can spend Sunday enjoying some other football, or maybe even stepping away from football entirely. I won't be watching every game as closely as possible, but I'll be keeping an eye out nonetheless.
The 49ers are 3-6 and are competing for draft positioning a lot more than playoff positioning. The team does not play this weekend, but enough 2-6 and 3-5 teams are in action that we can expect to see some adjustment to the 49ers draft position. They head into Sunday holding the No. 8 pick, and more than likely will end up around ten or eleven by weekend's end. Of course, upsets do happen, so that could change.
Here is how the draft order currently looks, with the strength of schedule for each team listed last. Thanks to Scott Carasik for putting this together.
1. Detroit Lions (1-7, .542)
2. San Diego Chargers (2-6, .508)
3. Cleveland Browns (2-7, .526)
4. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-5, .474)
5. Tennessee Titans (1-6, .489)
6. Baltimore Ravens (2-6, .507)
7. Dallas Cowboys (2-5, .567)
8. San Francisco 49ers (2-6, .545)
9. Miami Dolphins (3-5, .481)
10. Chicago Bears (2-5, .500)
11. Kansas City Chiefs (3-5, .504)
12. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-5, .507)
13. Houston Texans (3-5, .530)
14. Washington (3-5, .530)
In looking through the remaining games, there are two games in which both teams are right ahead or behind the 49ers. Cowboys-Bucs and Jaguars-Ravens will likely result in the 49ers remaining in the same position. If the Cowboys win, the 49ers likely move ahead of them because of SOS, but will likely drop behind the Bucs due to SOS. Both the Jaguars and Ravens likely remain ahead of the 49ers with a win because of SOS.
Lions-Packers is intriguing in that it all but guarantees the 49ers SOS gets a little worse (which we like for tiebreaker purposes). Barring a tie, one of the two loses. It's only game out of a lot, so it's not a huge deal, but it is worth noting. Other than all that, we are rooting for the bold teams.
Lions (1-7) @ Packers (6-2)
Cowboys (2-6) @ Buccaneers (3-5)
Panthers (8-0) @ Titans (2-6)
Bears (3-5) @ Rams (4-4)
Saints (4-5) @ Washington (3-5)
Dolphins (3-5) @ Eagles (4-4)
Browns (2-7) @ Steelers (5-4)
Jaguars (2-6) @ Ravens (2-6)
Chiefs (3-5) @ Broncos (7-1)
Texans (3-5) @ Bengals (8-0)