F
Las Vegas Raiders
The steal of the weekend belongs to the Raiders and Howard: F.
by [email protected] ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 14 picks
· 8 steals
· 3 reaches
You build a draft on nights like this. Will Howard had no business being available in pick 182, and the Raiders did the only sane thing and turned in the card. It bottoms out at a F.
They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. They will regret leaving tight end for another day if the season turns on it. They are betting Revel Jr. proves the room right and everyone else wrong.
It is a win-now wager, and the future is the stake.
There is no soft landing here: they fought the board and left tight end open, and the grade is the bill.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 6 they get a premier pass rusher. The biggest hole, addressed.
In Round 1, Pick 10 they get a lockdown presence outside, though they paid up to get him. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
Circle this one: Kenneth Grant at the Round 2 slot is a fall that decides a draft. It fills a real need, too.
A reach for Marcus Mbow in the 39th pick; a little patience would have been rewarded. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Tyler Booker at pick 41 is a sensible buy, a touch better than market for the offensive lineman. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
A quiet steal in slot 68: TreVeyon Henderson for less than the market said. The roster fit checks out.
Darien Porter in No. 72 is the kind of reach that only looks good if he outplays it. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A wide receiver of that caliber at the 73rd overall pick is the definition of value, full stop. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A tidy little value on Kevin Winston Jr. in the Round 4 slot, a step better than break-even. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They barely believed it either: Brashard Smith still on the board at No. 144. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
They robbed the room for Will Howard here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Dont'e Thornton Jr. at slot 214 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
JJ Pegues at the 218th overall pick is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
You do not let a wide receiver like Roc Taylor reach pick 224 and blink. They did not. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.