B-
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders checked most of the boxes and earned a B-.
by Chilly99 ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 11 picks
· 5 steals
· 2 reaches
Somewhere a scout is still blinking. The Raiders spent Round 6, Pick 45 on Carson Steele, a name the board had a full 106 spots lower. It does the job without flash, and the B- reflects it.
They banked enough surplus on Johnson to cover a lot of smaller sins. Leaving tight end unaddressed is the roster risk they will have to answer for in the fall.
The dealing tilted against them, just enough to notice.
All told, a solid class that does its job everywhere but tight end.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get an anchor for the offensive line at fair value. The biggest hole, addressed.
A quiet steal in pick 44: J.J. McCarthy for less than the market said. It fills a real need, too.
They paid sticker price for Austin Booker in pick No. 77, and that is fine. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Good price on Calen Bullock in the 89th pick, a hair ahead of his grade with no real quibbles. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
They took Jarvis Brownlee Jr. at par in Round 4, Pick 12, which is nothing to complain about. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Somehow Chau Smith-Wade was still sitting there in slot 148, and they pounced on premier cornerback value. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Jha'Quan Jackson at the Round 6 slot is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Carson Steele at pick 220 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Richard Jibunor in Round 7, Pick 9, miles early. The roster logic is harder to follow.
The board fumbled Jaylan Ford all the way to the 233rd overall pick, and they scooped it up. A minor itch, scratched.
They robbed the room for Cornelius Johnson here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.