B-
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders did the meat-and-potatoes work well: B-.
by Slenda ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 2 steals
· 4 reaches
Some picks age like wine; Stone Handy at the Round 7 slot will need to, sitting 125 spots clear of his grade.
Landing Stout that late papers over a lot of smaller sins. Leaving quarterback unaddressed is the roster risk they will have to answer for in the fall.
On the needs board they went 6 of 8, with edge rusher the one that mattered most.
Nothing here to lose sleep over, and plenty to feel decent about.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 6 they get a bell-cow for the offense. A real need, handled.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Emeka Egbuka at the Round 2 slot. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
A tidy little value on Deone Walker in No. 68, a step better than break-even. It fills a real need, too.
Emery Jones Jr. at the 108th overall pick is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Cobee Bryant at pick 143 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Value said wait; Teddye Buchanan in the 180th pick says they were not listening. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
A clean, defensible pick in Round 6, Pick 37 with a little surplus value in Ricky White III. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Somehow Upton Stout was still sitting there in pick No. 215, and they pounced on premier safety value. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They left a pile of value on the table to take Stone Handy this early at slot 222. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.