B
Las Vegas Raiders
A sensible, unshowy class lands the Raiders a B.
by Chilly99 ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 15 picks
· 4 steals
· 3 reaches
If confidence were a draft strategy, the Raiders would have aced it. Trajan Jeffcoat at the Round 7 slot is 63 spots clear of where he belonged.
Whatever else happened, they won the night they took Hadden. That interior defensive lineman hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall.
The trade work was a quiet net positive.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a potential shutdown corner. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Adisa Isaac at No. 44 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They paid sticker price for Kingsley Suamataia in slot 58, and that is fine. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for Spencer Rattler. It fills a real need, too.
By-the-book stuff, Bucky Irving at the 91st overall pick squarely in line with his ranking. A need, and now a little less of one.
Zak Zinter at pick No. 112 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Caelen Carson at Round 4, Pick 20 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
They took Johnny Wilson at par in No. 126, which is nothing to complain about. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Brennan Jackson at the 148th pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They reached a country mile for Erick All at pick No. 172, and the board is aghast. The roster fit checks out.
Kamal Hadden in the 212th overall pick should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Evan Williams in pick 219. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
A quiet steal in the Round 7 slot: Tanner McLachlan for less than the market said. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A top-tier wide receiver at a bargain, Tahj Washington in slot 229, plain and simple. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Trajan Jeffcoat in pick No. 245 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.