B
Las Vegas Raiders
A passer of the future in Sanders, and a B, for the Raiders.
by DamnDame ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 8 steals
· 1 reaches
The Raiders spent the weekend waiting on one name, and it fell: Sonny Styles, the No. 127 name on the board, in No. 212.
Shedeur Sanders is the bet, and the class will be judged on how it pays off. Spending an early pick on linebacker with edge rusher, tight end and other spots open is the decision the grade keeps circling back to. For all the activity, edge rusher went untouched, which is hard to explain.
A competent weekend that does not make headlines and does not need to.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 1 they get the face of the franchise at fair value.
Travis Hunter at No. 34 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Ashton Jeanty at slot 65 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. It fills a real need, too.
A top-tier offensive lineman at a bargain, Tate Ratledge in the Round 3 slot, plain and simple. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They will replay Jalon Walker at pick No. 103 for years; that is how good the value is. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
A curious use of No. 138. Edge rusher, tight end and other spots needed the pick; a linebacker in Smael Mondon Jr. did not.
Kyren Lacy in Round 6, Pick 2 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They robbed the room for Sonny Styles here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
Bryce Foster slid further than he should have, and the 216th overall pick is lovely value for the offensive lineman. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Damien Martinez in the 217th pick is early enough to raise a brow, if not a full objection. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.