In the 2008 campaign, the Raiders will go 9-7, and here's how they'll do it:

AFC West: (3-3) First off, I fully expect the Raiders to lose both games to the Chargers.  Last year, the Raiders split with the Broncos and, as we all remember, the loss came on a field goal Janikowski made in the final seconds which was negated by the wiley time out call by Broncos coach, Mike (insert expletives) Shanahan.  Subsequently, Janikowski missed the field goal and we lost the game.  Regardless, there is no reason to fear the Broncos this year.  The Chiefs may or may not have made greater strides than the Raiders this off-season (everyone is praising their draft) but consider:  the Raiders have two former heisman candidates at running back who are, or will essentially be, rookies this year, a safety who will be a rookie this year at his natural position, plus the rest of the actual draft picks the Raiders picked up.  Not a bad "draft class."  Anyway, I can't say for certain where the Raiders will get 3 wins in the division, but I do think they will get 3 of 4 against the Broncos and Chiefs and, therefore, 3-3. 

AFC East. (2-2) A loss to the Pats is expected.  A win against the Dolphins is expected, again this year.  It's hard to imagine the Raiders not beating the Jets and, frankly, I can see them beating the Bills, too.  For arguments sake though, I'll give a split on the Bills and Jets.  2-2. 

NFC South. (3-1) Carolina and Atlanta should be wins.  Tampa Bay and New Orleans are both more than capable of being better than, and beating, the Raiders but, if history has anything to say about it, one of these teams is going to be absolutely terrible this year, despite their talent.  Whichever one happens to be the terrible one loses to the Raiders and, so, 3-1. 

The two worst teams of the other two AFC divisions. (1-1) Come on.  We can beat either the rapidly declining Ravens or the who-knows-what-you're-going-to-get Texans.  We can.  Really.  Split 1-1. 

Total: (9-7)  The main reason I think 9-7 is possible is that, while the above is logical for reasons far beyond what I've gotten into here, there are situations where the above is conservative and others where it's optimistic.  For example, I don't think it would be a huge stretch to go 3-1 in the AFC East.  We could beat everyone but the Patriots.  I don't think it would be impossible to go 4-2 in our division, if we start to gel, and we could also go 2-4.  We might go 2-2 (instead of 3-1) in the NFC South games, but I think we could beat both the Ravens and the Texans instead of splitting them, though we've had little luck with the latter.  If 8-8 is conservative and 10-6 is optimistic, then 9-7 seems realisitic. 

The down side, of course, is that we likely don't make the playoffs at 9-7.  The upside is considerable though.  Al’s (and our) confidence in Lane Kiffin will go up, Nnamdi might be more inclined to come back, and a couple more free agents who want to go to a team on the brink might be willing to join up next off-season.  I don't want to speculate on the future of the Raiders beyond this year (besides winning a whole bunch of Super Bowls), but I think things are on the up and up.  9-7 would be a great start. 

Go Raiders!