Minnesota Vikings vs. Oakland Raiders: Draft Positioning vs. Playoff Positioning

The Oakland Raiders are in first place in the AFC West, and are favored by a point on the road against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday afternoon. The 5-4 Raiders are one of sixteen teams (half of the NFL) that have four, five or six wins, and who are in the middle of the playoff race.

The Minnesota Vikings are 2-7, and are one of just five teams that have two wins or fewer and are simply playing out the schedule because they have to. Hard-core fans are stuck in the unenviable position of trying to decide if they want their team to pick up meaningless wins at the risk of hurting their position in next spring's draft.

Having read those two paragraphs, it might be surprising to find out how similar the two teams actually are. And while the Raiders are leading their division and the Vikings are playing out the string, the truth is that neither team is very good, and both organizations have quite a ways to go to become upper-echelon teams.

Both teams are being led by first-time head coaches. The Vikings hired former defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, while the Raiders gave the reins to former offensive coordinator Hue Jackson.

While fans in the Bay Area are thrilled with the energy and renewed spirit that Jackson has brought to the silver and black, Vikings fans are quickly running out of patience with a coach who seems as lifeless as his ball club.

The teams' best players are both running backs: the Vikings have Adrian Peterson, widely considered the best runner in the game, while the Raiders are led by Darren McFadden, who led the NFL in rushing before being injured three weeks ago.

Michael Bush has filled in admirably, averaging 117 yards a game in McFadden's absence. McFadden isn't expected to play Sunday, but they haven't missed him much, and are still the fourth-ranked rushing offense in the league, while the Vikings rank fifth.

However, as anyone who pays enough attention to NFL football now knows, running backs just don't matter as much as they used to. It's now more than ever a quarterback-driven league, and the Vikings and Raiders are also very similar at the most important position.

The bridge that was to be Donovan McNabb to the Christian Ponder era was blown up after six games, and the Vikings are now finding out what they might have in their rookie quarterback. So far, he has looked... well, decent.

The sample size is way too small to make any judgements on his long-term capability, but the truth is that after three starts, Ponder's completion percentage is a dismal 50 percent, and his quarterback rating is a paltry 69.8.

Vikings fans should note that their former public enemy number one, Tarvaris Jackson, has better numbers for the Seahawks, at 60 percent and a 74.8 rating.

Meanwhile, the Raiders started the season with the always-mediocre Jason Campbell who played... well, decently, before breaking his collar bone in October and being shelved for perhaps the rest of the season.

A trade with the Bengals brought former All-Pro Carson Palmer to Oakland, and after an awful first game, Palmer has thrown for five touchdowns and over 600 yards in his last two games.

Neither team's receivers are setting the world on fire, but it's worth noting that the Raiders' top four pass-catchers are all averaging over 15 yards per catch, while nobody on the Vikings averages even 13 yards a grab.

Defensively, both teams are bad. Even though the Vikings rank fifth against the run, they're 30th against the pass, so look for Palmer to go to the air often, looking for his two deep threats, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Denarious Moore.

The Vikings lost Antoine Winfield for the season Monday night, and Chris Cook is still out pending legal matters, so don't expect the Vikings' pass defense numbers to get any better this week.

Though the Vikings are the home team, Vegas bookmakers don't seem too impressed. Minnesota is just 1-3 at home this season and the Raiders are 3-1 on the road.

What's intriguing for most Vikings fans this week is to see the progression of Christian Ponder.

He has started three games, but two of them have been against the undefeated Packers, so seeing him at home against a middle-of-the-pack team should shed a little more light on whether or not he can be a franchise quarterback for the purple.