B
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders worked the phones like thieves and earned a B.
by vhh ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 7 picks
· 2 steals
· 1 reaches
There is reaching, and then there is Cody Simon at slot 71. The Raiders jumped the board by 162 and dared it to prove them wrong. They moved the roster forward and banked a B for it.
The dealing alone would carry a lesser class. The edge rusher hole is the one line item this class does not answer.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
Denzel Burke in slot 17 is fair value, right on his grade. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They paid sticker price for Walter Nolen in the Round 2 slot, and that is fine. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They talked themselves into Cody Simon at Round 3, Pick 7, and the board did not agree. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
A market-rate offensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on J.C. Davis. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Value with a capital V on Collin Oliver in pick 135, a genuine coup. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
Dorian Strong is a better player than pick No. 167 suggests; smart patience, rewarded. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
By-the-book stuff, Jalen Travis at the 199th overall pick squarely in line with his ranking. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.