B+
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders cashed the board's mistake on Harvey: B+.
by James ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 8 steals
· 1 reaches
The Raiders did not reach, did not trade up, did not blink. They just waited, and RJ Harvey fell into the Round 6 slot.
Leaving edge rusher unaddressed is the roster risk they will have to answer for in the fall. They will need Stackhouse to outplay his draft slot in a hurry to justify it.
The Raiders clearly valued win-now help, adding bodies who have done it before.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the edge rusher spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
A slide stopped in the 68th pick, with Jaxson Dart worth more than the price. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Tre Harris in No. 73 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
They robbed the room for Kevin Winston Jr. here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
Circle this one: Smael Mondon Jr. at pick 144 is a fall that decides a draft. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Taking Anthony Belton in Round 5, Pick 22 is close to grand larceny; an offensive lineman that good had no business lasting this long. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They paid a round early for Nazir Stackhouse in pick No. 182, more than the board wanted. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
You do not let a running back like RJ Harvey reach the 214th overall pick and blink. They did not. A need, and now a little less of one.
Jaylen Reed in the Round 6 slot is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
The board fumbled KeAndre Lambert-Smith all the way to Round 7, Pick 6, and they scooped it up. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.