B
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders let McCaffrey fall and pounced. Final grade: B.
by [email protected] ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 7 steals
· 2 reaches
The Raiders did not reach, did not trade up, did not blink. They just waited, and Luke McCaffrey fell into No. 190.
If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through edge rusher. The cost of the Hartman reach is exactly the players who went right after him.
On the needs board they went 5 of 8, with cornerback the one that mattered most.
All told, a draft that does its job without fuss, and there is real value in that.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 13 they get a long-term starter on the line, even if it was a touch early. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
You do not let a wide receiver like Brian Thomas Jr. reach pick No. 46 and blink. They did not. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
The board fumbled Kalen King all the way to slot 77, and they scooped it up. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A tidy little value on Ray Davis in No. 113, a step better than break-even. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Khyree Jackson at the 118th overall pick. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Sataoa Laumea in the Round 5 slot should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Taking Tommy Eichenberg in Round 5, Pick 14 is close to grand larceny; a linebacker that good had no business lasting this long. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They robbed the room for Luke McCaffrey here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
The board had cheaper options than Sam Hartman at the Round 7 slot, and it noticed. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Josh Proctor in pick 231 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.