B-
Las Vegas Raiders
Sanders is the plan now, and the Raiders grade out a B-.
by Kinggg ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 5 steals
· 3 reaches
Nobody else had Noah Thomas anywhere near pick No. 212. The Raiders did, by 123 spots, and that gap is the whole story. They moved the roster forward and banked a B- for it.
Whatever else happened, they won the night they took Higgins. So much rides on Shedeur Sanders that the rest of the class almost grades on a curve behind him. They punted on edge rusher, and it is the miss that keeps the grade honest.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 1st pick they get the face of the franchise. A real need, handled.
A clean, defensible pick in No. 34 with a little surplus value in Tate Ratledge. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
The board fumbled Tyler Booker all the way to the Round 3 slot, and they scooped it up. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
A real head-scratcher, Dont'e Thornton Jr. in pick 72 is miles ahead of his ranking. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They robbed the room for Jihaad Campbell here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
You do not let a running back like Jordan James reach the 138th overall pick and blink. They did not. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They reached into another round for Tonka Hemingway, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Value said wait; Noah Thomas in the 212th pick says they were not listening. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Taking Robert Spears-Jennings in Round 7, Pick 2 is close to grand larceny; a safety that good had no business lasting this long. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Jay Higgins at the 217th overall pick is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.