Silver And Black Pride
With the 2-8 Cleveland Browns and 2-8 Las Vegas Raiders facing off in Week 12, this game has big implications when it comes to the 2026 NFL draft order. The Browns currently own the third overall pick while the Raiders sit at No. 6 heading into the weekend, per Tankathon. So, the “winner” of this game could actually be the team that loses, considering both clubs should be building for the future. With that in mind, this week’s key matchups will continue to focus on the Raiders’ younger players.
On that note, while many may expect to see current NFL sack leader Myles Garrett featured here, he wasn’t included in any of the matchups below. Nearly 80 percent of Garrett’s snaps this season have come as a right defensive end, according to Pro Football Focus, meaning he’ll be facing off against Las Vegas’ left tackle Stone Forsythe with Kolton Miller still on injured reserve. Since Forsythe is a backup who is on a one-year contract and will be 28 next month, there’s no point in featuring that matchup with the focus on the team’s future.
With fellow rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel suffering a concussion last week, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced on Wednesday that Sanders will make his much-anticipated first NFL start in Las Vegas. After Gabriel’s exit on Sunday, Sanders made his regular-season debut and had a rough outing, completing just four passes on 16 attempts for 47 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.
Diving deeper into the numbers, PFF credited the fifth-round pick with one “big-time throw” and three “turnover-worthy plays”. Granted, he’s in a different situation this week, getting to prepare to be the starter rather than being thrown into the fire mid-game. This will be the first time Sanders is in this circumstance, so it will be interesting to see how he handles it.
For the record, he had one good outing during the preseason, completing 14 of 23 pass attempts for 138 yards, two touchdowns and a couple of BTTs with no TWPs. However, his second game was a different story, going three-for-six with 14 yards, no BTTs and two TWPs.
Meanwhile, it will be Pola-Mao’s job to create confusion for the young quarterback and take advantage of any mistakes. The 26-year-old has been the Raiders’ primary free safety this season, and while he has taken more snaps in the box recently, 81 out of his 124 snaps over the last two weeks have been on the backend of the defense.
Pola-Mao has managed to come up with a couple of interceptions this season, but he does have something to prove to keep his spot as a starter moving forward. The safety is tied for the second-most touchdowns allowed (five) at the position and owns the worst PFF coverage grade (29.2, minimum 91 coverage snaps) this season, as there have been several instances where he’s been caught out of position.
Also, Pola-Mao will presumably draw Browns’ rookie...
