B-
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders found their guy under center in Ward: B-.
by jonniep ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 4 steals
· 2 reaches
If confidence were a draft strategy, the Raiders would have aced it. DJ Uiagalelei at slot 178 is 97 spots clear of where he belonged. The bottom line is a respectable B-.
The whole projection now runs through Cam Ward; hit there and everything else looks smarter. Whatever else happened, they won the night they took Sanders.
A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. The offense got the lion's share of the attention.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 6 they get a franchise quarterback. A real need, handled.
Matthew Golden at pick No. 37 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They jumped the gun on Maxwell Hairston, taking him earlier than his grade liked. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Circle this one: Isaiah Bond at the 73rd overall pick is a fall that decides a draft. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They robbed the room for TreVeyon Henderson here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
They took Pat Bryant at par in Round 5, Pick 5, which is nothing to complain about. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
DJ Uiagalelei at pick 178 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A top-tier safety at a bargain, Upton Stout in Round 6, Pick 37, plain and simple. A minor itch, scratched.
The board fumbled Raheim Sanders all the way to No. 216, and they scooped it up. A need, and now a little less of one.
By-the-book stuff, Seth McLaughlin at the 222nd pick squarely in line with his ranking. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.