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• <i>(7:30 PM):</i><b> Bucs move to #1 ... </b> With Oakland upsetting San Francisco in the Battle by the Bay for its second win of the year there will clearly be a major reshuffling at the top of this week's selection order for the opening round of the 2015 draft. However, with three weeks to go in the regular season there is still a lot of sorting out to do as 5 teams will be tied with 2-11 records. Because they have the weakest strength of schedule of the 5, Tampa Bay would have the first pick if the draft were held this week, followed by Tennessee, Jacksonville, the NY Jets and Oakland, now all the way down to the 5th pick. Meanwhile, the next three picks are unchanged with Washington at #6, followed by the Giants at #7 and Carolina at #8. The change among the latter two picks, though, is that with both the Giants and Panthers winning this week the chances of either moving into the top 5 even if they were to go 0-3 over their final three games went from slim to pretty close to none. The full first-round selection order for this week will be posted after
  
• tomorrow night's Monday night game
  

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T-minus three weeks, and Tampa Bay now leads the Marcus Mariota derby. Oakland’s win over San Francisco takes the Raiders out of the first slot in the 2015 NFL Draft. That leaves five teams at 2-11, vying for the top pick and the right to take Mariota (presumably—considering all the off-field problems swirling around Jameis Winston). As of this morning the top five would fall in this order, based on the won-loss record of the opposition in each team’s 13 games to this point:

1. Tampa Bay. The Bucs would sit and take Mariota, or raffle it for a ransom to a quarterback-needy team.

2. Tennessee. The Titans would be in line for Mariota too.

3. Jacksonville. Knowing GM Dave Caldwell, he’d be in the auction business.

4. New York Jets. You can’t know what the Jets will do until you know the identity of the GM and coach. Odds are both will be different than the incumbents five weeks from now.

5. Oakland. Euphoria over beating San Francisco—except in the guts of the scouts, who will say the right thing, but really: The first pick in the draft is worth far, far more than a morale-boosting meaningless win in December.

Last point here: For Tennessee, it’s New Jersey, New Jersey, with the Jets following the Giants to Nashville this week. (Not New York, New York, because the two teams play and practice and do business in New Jersey.) Why on earth would Ken Whisenhunt, who, presumably, is going to be the coach in 2015, pull out all the stops to try to win this game? Take your medicine, lose, and get the highest pick you can so you can be in the best position possible to take the best quarterback or best player—or trade the pick for a few good ones.