D
Las Vegas Raiders
Ward is the plan now, and the Raiders grade out a D.
by [email protected] ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 6 steals
· 1 reaches
This is the pick they will still be bragging about in July: Billy Bowman Jr., the No. 121 name on the board, stolen at No. 214. A D that will need time and luck to look better.
The Thornton Jr. pick is the one the value grade keeps tripping over. So much rides on Cam Ward that the rest of the class almost grades on a curve behind him.
They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. A whole weekend of picks and tight end is somehow still a want.
Add it up and it is a weekend the front office will hope everyone forgets, tight end very much included.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 8th overall pick they get the face of the franchise at fair value. A clean fit for the roster.
A cornerback of that caliber at pick No. 33 is the definition of value, full stop. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Somehow James Pearce Jr. was still sitting there in the Round 2 slot, and they pounced on premier edge rusher value. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
TreVeyon Henderson at No. 67 is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Nice patience on Marcus Mbow, who had no business lasting to slot 68. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Isaiah Bond at the 73rd overall pick is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
A clean, defensible pick in the 107th pick with a little surplus value in Kevin Winston Jr.. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Dont'e Thornton Jr. in pick 144 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They did well to land Ollie Gordon II in Round 6, Pick 4, just ahead of his grade. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
You do not let a safety like Billy Bowman Jr. reach pick No. 214 and blink. They did not. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.