The Raiders now firmly in the driver's seat for the number one overall pick after their blowout loss to the New York Giants.

That plus more on Monday's edition of the Locked On Raiders podcast for December 29th, 2025.

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And welcome air rater nation to another edition of the Locked On Raiders podcast, part of the Locked Onon Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome here, Raider Nation, to another edition of the Locked-on Raiders podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your number one sports podcast network. We're very proud of that. We're also very proud of the fact that this show continues to grow each and every day because of your support, Raider Nation, and because the great job that my man Ari does behind the scenes, making sure we look good and sound good by way of the YouTube page so we definitely appreciate that we shout him out he's on Twitter at Ari Produces you can hit me up as well at your boy Q254 and we got the Locked on Raider podcast voicemail line for you at 707-654-4693 as we normally do we'll hear from you as we show, calls, texts, a lot of really good feedback based off everything silver and black, including that blowout loss to the Giants on Sunday, 34 to 10. So we'll hear from you coming up in segment number three. Segment number two, we'll talk all things, Max Crosby. Max Crosby was sat down on Friday. The Raiders told him that he was not going to play on Sunday against the Giants. And then it wasn't official that he was going to be shut down for the rest of the season until Saturday when they put out a statement. And as you can imagine, Max Crosby, as we talked about on Friday's show, was not very happy about that. So we'll talk all things, Max Crosby coming up in segment number two. Here is segment number one news and notes of the day.

And it really just has to do with the way that the Raiders lost the game, 34 to 10, to the New York Giants. And I don't even know if it was that close. But with that loss, and a lot of people were talking about, hopefully the Raiders lose the next two games so they can secure that number one overall spot. Well, losing to the Giants of Week 17, they now have an 80% chance at that number one spot. That's according to ESPN research. They lose next week versus KC. They get the number one overall pick just like that. So they're in firm control of what they end up doing with that number one overall draft pick. All they've got to do is lose next week against the Kansas Chiefs. and the game has not been determined yet. If it's going to be on Saturday, Sunday, what the time is going to be.

I'm assuming it's going to be Sunday, but right now it's just an assumption. So I believe the worst they can do if they do beat the Chiefs and, you know, there's a lot of conversation if Kansas City who they're going to be playing. They're down to their third string quarterback, whatever the case may be. If they do end up beating the Chiefs next week, I believe the worst they can do is the number three spot, but I still have to confirm that. I know strike the schedule will decide right now, four teams have three wins. That's the Giants, the Jets, the Titans, and the Cardinals. So if the Raiders defeat the Chiefs, they aren't guaranteed the number one overall pick.

Like I said, strike the schedule will decide the draft order for teams with the same number of wins. And obviously, whatever these other teams do, the Giants, the Jets, the Titans, and the Cardinals. So if you lose, your number one overall pick. If you don't lose, if you win the game, then there's a few different scenarios. but like I said, I do believe the worst they could do is the number three overall pick. But I'll get that confirmed sooner rather than later, just so we have clarity on that. If the Giants had lost on Sunday, they would have had the number one overall pick, first and foremost. Just that would have been that simple. That's an easy math problem. But they didn't. They dominated, start to finish.

They got 14 points really quickly, and I was like, well, that's the game.

I'll sit in there in the press box. And I'll tell you what, a lot of people talk about tanking, tanking, what I saw on Sunday was just terrible football. I mean, the Raiders looked so bad. and I thought that they were going to win that game based off what we saw against Houston.

The way that they put that performance out there against the Texans, I thought, okay, they play like that. They're going to beat this Giants team, but they didn't play anywhere close to that. And I know Max Crosby wasn't out there. Brock Bowers wasn't out there. Obviously, it's a big deal. Jeremy Chin wasn't out there. Gino Smith left the game with the high ankle sprain, so his season's probably over as well, but they just did not look good at all. The offensive line didn't get a good push.

Ashtha Genti had, what, 60 yards, 16 carries 60 yards, a long of 24, a couple catches,

13 yards. But very underwhelming performance, you know, once again, he's still 100-something yards away from potentially getting 1,000 yards on the season. But just a really, I mean, it was a lot of bad football. Guys were running wide open. The defense just, just, I mean, there was nothing of green grass out there for the Giants. And Jackson Dart was running out around the field. He did get hit more times than I expected him to get hit. I was surprised that the Giants didn't take him out at some stage of the game. But I mean, they put up 34 points and it did not even look like it was difficult. And the Raiders, they did score a touchdown, but it wasn't until the third quarter. And then that's when it looked like, okay, so getting a little bit closer. Maybe the Raiders are going to mount a comeback. And then immediately on the kickoff, Deonté Banks takes

95 yards to the house on a kickoff, Deonté Banks takes

it 95 yards to the house on a kickoff return touchdown. And it was like, nope, they're not going to make it close. This is a game set match. It was just really bad. Gino Smith, 20 for 28, 176 yards and a touchdown. That touchdown, like it said, came in the third quarter. And oh, by the way, through two more interceptions.

So 17 interceptions on the season,

and that's probably where it's going to end.

Pete Carroll said after the game, he has a high ankle sprain. So most likely, that's going to end his Raiders season, potentially his Raiders' career. Kenny Pickett will probably get to start on, well, next week in week 18 versus Kansas City. If not, Kenny Pickett, then maybe Aiden O'Connell. But instead of Aiden O'Connell being the emergency quarterback, he'll probably be the backup quarterback. Because like I said, Gino Smith trying to play on a high ankle sprain. I know that he wants to be out there. I doubt that that's going to happen. One bright spot for the game for the Raiders. If you're looking for silver linings, Michael Mayer looked really good.

Nine catches on 10 targets, 89 yards, a single game career high in receptions of receiving yards.

And that's really wild to think that, right?

To know that he's in the year that he's in already, right, year three, just about wrapping up year three.

And this is his single game career high in receptions

of receiving yards. Nine for 89 yards. And it was wild. I was sitting there watching the game

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