Wasn't that long ago that Richard Seymour was refusing to report to the Oakland Raiders because he didn't want to play for a bad team. Since then Seymour has reported to the Raiders, and he's decided that they're a playoff team.
Seymour appeared Wednesday on "Two Deep Zone", an AM radio football gab show on 1530 Homer in Cincinnati. I don't know what Seymour was doing on the radio home of the Cincinnati Bengals, but the segment is available on line. Seymour outright predicted a playoff run for the Raiders this season, and set off Jim Mora impersonations all across western Ohio.
"You can mark it down," Seymour declared. "The Raiders will be in the playoffs in 2009."
We're going to just look past the fact that this season's playoffs actually begin on January 9, 2010.
Of course, Seymour was specifically asked whether the Raiders were going to the playoffs. It would have been kind of a jerk move of him to say no.
Seymour's prediction has got some shock value, but what's even more shocking is that it's completely possible. Just last season, the Miami Dolphins started with the exact same 2-4 record, finished 11-5, and even won their division and hosted a home playoff game.
Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com breaks it down into very do-able terms. "At 2-4, the Raiders are only a game behind the logjam of teams jockeying for the No. 6 seed," Florio writes. "Currently, the Ravens, Jets, Jaguars, and Texans are 3-3."
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Check it out, Raider Nation! You're just one game out of the Wild Card race!
Looking at it like that this early is silly, but these September and October games matter too. As the season gets later, the Raiders may once again find themselves one overturned Louis Murphy touchdown catch against the Chargers out of a playoff spot.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who refuses to let go of that overturned Louis Murphy touchdown catch in Week 1.
