B
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders robbed the room for Smith-Wade. Final grade: B.
by Draftdad ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 6 steals
· 1 reaches
Thirty-one other rooms let Chau Smith-Wade slide, and the Raiders were the ones holding the card at pick No. 221. Highway robbery. Good, not great, and the B says as much.
They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. Tagovailoa has a lot of ground to make up just to look fairly priced.
Stockpiling next year's capital is patient, if unglamorous, asset work.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the edge rusher spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
They read the board right and Taliese Fuaga was the payoff at Round 2, Pick 1. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Terrion Arnold in slot 44 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Junior Colson in the 77th overall pick lands just on the right side of the ledger. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
A straight-up fair deal on Michael Pratt at No. 102, value and slot in agreement. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A quiet steal in the 113th pick: Dominick Puni for less than the market said. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
A wide receiver of that caliber at the Round 5 slot is the definition of value, full stop. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
You do not let a running back like Dylan Laube reach pick No. 190 and blink. They did not. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Circle this one: Chau Smith-Wade at pick 221 is a fall that decides a draft. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They paid a round early for Taulia Tagovailoa in slot 231, more than the board wanted. It patches a soft spot without any drama.