Is 12-5 Doable for the Raiders This Season? (Asking for All Sane NFL Fans)

Franco in Texas called the show on a beautiful landline to play the win-loss game with his Las Vegas Raiders. By the end, he had them at 12-5. The reaction in studio ranged from delight to a suggestion that his bosses test him.

Franco walked the schedule game by game, and the optimism was relentless. The opener against the Dolphins was a win. He conceded a loss at the Chargers in Los Angeles, admitting the Raiders just don't win there. Then came a run of dubs: at the Saints because Derek Carr is gone, home against the Chiefs with a banged-up Patrick Mahomes, and at the Patriots because, in Franco's words, the Raiders always beat them. He spotted losses to the Bills and Rams at home, and graciously handed Rich a Raiders loss at the Jets, somehow.

The boldest stretch came late. Franco took the win at the 49ers, where he plans to be in person for what he called a war zone, and home against the champion Seahawks, predicting their offense would fall off a cliff. He gave back losses at the Broncos and at the Browns in a trap game, then unveiled his plot twist: coming off the bye, he had the Raiders benching their starter and turning to Aidan O'Connell, who proceeds to finish the year on a five-game winning streak. That carried them to 12-5, with the only blemishes the Browns and Jets.

Rich could barely keep up. He noted the Raiders' actual win total sits at 5.5, meaning Franco had more than doubled it, and that Vegas lists them at 15-to-1 to win the AFC West. The schedule he laid out, a seven-week gauntlet starting in week four against the Chiefs and Patriots before a home stand and cross-country trips, made the projection look even wilder.

So the show ribbed him. Rich warned Franco, with the ultimate respect, that his bosses had sniffed him out and left a cup outside the men's room, and dubbed him the Fernando Mendoza of his office, a reference to the quarterback Franco had sitting all year in his scenario behind a late-season O'Connell takeover. Franco took it in stride, insisting he'd be running the office soon enough.

The bit closed where these always do, with the show turning Franco's call into an instant Overreaction Monday topic. What's more likely, the Raiders going 12-5 or Aidan O'Connell starting a game this year? The room landed on O'Connell, because injuries happen and teams reach their third quarterback all the time. The 12-5, less so. But as Rich put it, if Franco nailed every game, it would be like the Knicks coming back in all four of theirs.