D
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders bet the future on Dart. The board says D.
by [email protected] ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 19 picks
· 11 steals
· 6 reaches
When the story of this class is written, it opens with Jimmy Horn Jr. at the 212th pick, a reach of 96 spots that the board flatly disagrees with.
Bassa at that cost is the sort of edge that compounds over a roster. They handed away value on the phones that the picks cannot earn back. Whatever Jaxson Dart becomes, the front office has tied its fortunes to the answer.
The Starks pick is fine in a vacuum, less so with edge rusher and cornerback still on the board. If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through edge rusher.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and edge rusher is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 23 they get the arm they will build around, a steep price for the projection. A clean fit for the roster.
They let Walter Nolen come to them and pounced at pick No. 34. A need, and now a little less of one.
A market-rate offensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Tyler Booker. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Nick Emmanwori in No. 49 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Jihaad Campbell at the Round 2 slot is the proof. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
TreVeyon Henderson slipping to slot 65 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It fills a real need, too.
A running back of that caliber at slot 68 is the definition of value, full stop. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Hard to square with the roster. With positions of obvious need still on the board, Malaki Starks adds a safety and leaves edge rusher and cornerback untouched.
They zigged when the board said zag, taking Demetrius Knight Jr. at linebacker with edge rusher and cornerback open.
A reach for Savion Williams in pick 87; a little patience would have been rewarded. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Dillon Gabriel in the Round 4 slot, miles early. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Dont'e Thornton Jr. at No. 117 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Oronde Gadsden II at Round 5, Pick 5 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Terrance Ferguson at pick No. 152 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Circle this one: Barrett Carter at the 153rd overall pick is a fall that decides a draft. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
Steal is underselling it; Cam Skattebo at pick 178 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
They reached into another round for Jimmy Horn Jr., and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Jeffrey Bassa in pick No. 216 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Shilo Sanders well ahead of where he belonged. Nice player, but the depth chart did not need him here.