D
Las Vegas Raiders
Johnson should have been long gone. The Raiders pounced, and earned a D.
by raider1961 ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 2 steals
· 3 reaches
Every swap seemed to tilt away from the Raiders, and the value they bled adds up to real damage.
They punted on edge rusher, and it is the miss that keeps the grade honest. They will need DeJean to outplay his draft slot in a hurry to justify it.
That Johnson pick is the receipt they will wave around later. Almost all the early capital went to that side of the ball.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and edge rusher is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
By-the-book stuff, Rome Odunze at No. 12 squarely in line with his ranking. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They paid up for Troy Fautanu at slot 33 when waiting would have done the job. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A reach for Cooper DeJean in Round 2, Pick 12; a little patience would have been rewarded. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Value with a capital V on Denzel Burke in pick No. 76, a genuine coup. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Nothing to complain about; Tommy Eichenberg went a shade earlier than his grade, which is fine. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
They took Mike Sainristil at par in pick 149, which is nothing to complain about. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Ainias Smith at No. 168 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Brevyn Spann-Ford at pick No. 190 is a conviction pick that outran the value. The roster fit checks out.
Taking Cornelius Johnson in the Round 7 slot is close to grand larceny; a wide receiver that good had no business lasting this long. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.