B+
Las Vegas Raiders
Ward is the plan now, and the Raiders grade out a B+.
by Vanish1GRc ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 16 picks
· 15 steals
· 0 reaches
You build a draft on nights like this. Kenneth Grant had no business being available in pick No. 209, and the Raiders did the only sane thing and turned in the card. Call it a sensible B+, earned the boring way.
Everything downstream of Cam Ward depends on Cam Ward, and the building knows it. Leaving tight end unaddressed is the roster risk they will have to answer for in the fall. Edge rusher was the priority and it is no longer a question, which is most of the job.
The trade work was a quiet net positive.
All told, a solid class that does its job everywhere but tight end.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 8 they get their guy under center for the next decade at fair value. A clean fit for the roster.
In pick No. 12 they get a potential shutdown corner, outstanding value to boot. The biggest hole, addressed.
Ashton Jeanty in the 34th pick is a gift, value that borders on unfair. It fills a real need, too.
Walter Nolen at the 43rd overall pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Taking Tre Harris in pick No. 65 is close to grand larceny; a wide receiver that good had no business lasting this long. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Somehow Jahdae Barron was still sitting there in Round 3, Pick 5, and they pounced on premier cornerback value. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Circle this one: Nick Emmanwori at the Round 3 slot is a fall that decides a draft. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
A top-tier linebacker at a bargain, Jalon Walker in No. 103, plain and simple. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Steal is underselling it; Wyatt Milum at pick 138 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They robbed the room for Tate Ratledge here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Xavier Restrepo in the Round 6 slot should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They will replay Josaiah Stewart at the 193rd overall pick for years; that is how good the value is. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
You do not let an interior defensive lineman like Kenneth Grant reach No. 209 and blink. They did not. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Jihaad Campbell at Round 6, Pick 37 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
Malachi Moore at pick No. 216 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. Nice player, but the depth chart did not need him here.
The board fumbled Trey Amos all the way to pick 217, and they scooped it up. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.