B
Las Vegas Raiders
Penix Jr. is the Raiders' new face under center. Grade: B.
by COACHAL ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 4 steals
· 0 reaches
The Raiders spent the weekend waiting on one name, and it fell: Anthony Gould, the No. 142 name on the board, in No. 223. The bottom line is a respectable B.
Whatever Michael Penix Jr. becomes, the front office has tied its fortunes to the answer. If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through edge rusher. The roster is better shaped than it was, with cornerback chief among the fixes.
Almost all the early capital went to that side of the ball.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 13 they get the arm they will build around. A real need, handled.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Tyler Guyton in No. 34. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They took Max Melton at par in Round 3, Pick 13, which is nothing to complain about. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Somehow DJ James was still sitting there in No. 112, and they pounced on premier cornerback value. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They robbed the room for James Williams here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A minor need, but a need all the same.
Caedan Wallace in slot 208 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
The board fumbled Anthony Gould all the way to the Round 7 slot, and they scooped it up. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Fabien Lovett in pick 229 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.