D
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders let Howard fall into their laps, and walked away with a D.
by [email protected] ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 7 steals
· 0 reaches
The value of the weekend has a name and a slot: Will Howard, slot 182, roughly 74 picks past where he belonged. A weekend that fought the value and lost, hence the D.
Overpaying at the table undid a lot of the good work elsewhere. For all the activity, cornerback went untouched, which is hard to explain.
They left with edge rusher solved and the rest of the wish list mostly ticked off.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and cornerback is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 6 they get a premier pass rusher at fair value. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Steal is underselling it; Ashton Jeanty at No. 33 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. The roster fit checks out.
Tetairoa McMillan in the 37th overall pick should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Nice patience on Jaxson Dart, who had no business lasting to the 67th pick. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A quiet steal in the Round 3 slot: TreVeyon Henderson for less than the market said. A need, and now a little less of one.
Alfred Collins slipping to pick No. 73 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Kevin Winston Jr. in Round 4, Pick 6 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. It adds depth where they could use a little.
They paid sticker price for Oronde Gadsden II in slot 144, and that is fine. It fills a real need, too.
They will replay Will Howard at slot 182 for years; that is how good the value is. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
You do not let a wide receiver like Dont'e Thornton Jr. reach pick No. 214 and blink. They did not. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.