NFL Power Rankings Week 9: Focus on The Oakland Raiders

Over at my site—www.GuysNation.com—I do a weekly power ranking of all 32 NFL teams.  It's a hugely subjective process in which I try to account for a team's strength of schedule, margin of victory, good wins and bad losses.

Where do the Oakland Raiders currently rank after eight weeks of NFL action?

I usually try not to get too excited about any one victory, even in the case of blowout wins by huge margins.  There are exceptions, though, and when a team wins a road game in their division, that says a lot.  It either says that a team underestimated an opponent who they didn't think would perform well, or the winning team finally got everything clicking.

When a team gets two lopsided victories in a row?  That's when people should definitely stand up and take notice.

In Week 7, the Raiders found themselves in the bottom quarter of my rankings, and the huge win over Denver moved them up even further.  In Week 8 against the Seahawks, a former division rival, Oakland moved up the ladder even more as they got the 30-point margin of victory.

One thing I also try to take into account is what personnel changes might be happening in the next couple weeks for a given team, and I've heard rumblings that Jason Campbell's hot hand might be removed from the starting job in favor of Gradkowski, which I think could potentially be a big mistake—wasting some of that momentum which has been building up.

That said, there's still not guarantee that Campbell won't be under center in the Raiders' next game, so I won't factor it in too much.

Are the Raiders in my Top 15?  Is there any chance that I put them in the Top 10?  I don't usually rank based solely on winning percentage, especially not as we reach the midpoint of the season, but I try to factor in the most recent games more than anything.

For the complete rankings and analysis, check out the article on my website, www.GuysNation.com!  Unlike Power Rankings you see elsewhere, your comments could help persuade me to rank your team better after Week 9!