A
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders let Higgins fall into their laps, and walked away with a A.
by GinSlinger ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 13 picks
· 13 steals
· 0 reaches
The Raiders did not reach, did not trade up, did not blink. They just waited, and Jay Higgins fell into the Round 6 slot. One of the weekend's best, top to bottom, and a A to show for it.
The edge rusher spot stays a question, and it was the one they most needed an answer at. The imported veterans give this class a floor the draft picks could not on their own. Wide receiver is handled and the depth chart looks a good deal healthier for it.
The trade work was a quiet net positive.
Add it up and this is about as clean as a draft weekend gets.
Pick-by-Pick
Malaki Starks in No. 68 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
They will replay Kaleb Johnson at the 73rd overall pick for years; that is how good the value is. It fills a real need, too.
Steal is underselling it; Quinshon Judkins at the Round 3 slot is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A need, and now a little less of one.
Tate Ratledge in the 107th pick is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A top-tier linebacker at a bargain, Barrett Carter in Round 5, Pick 1, plain and simple. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Carson Schwesinger at pick No. 144 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
Savion Williams at slot 150 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They robbed the room for Lathan Ransom here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It is more luxury than necessity; they were already set here.
The board fumbled Jonah Monheim all the way to the 182nd pick, and they scooped it up. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
You do not let a linebacker like Jay Higgins reach No. 214 and blink. They did not. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
Hayden Conner at Round 6, Pick 40 is money in the bank, a offensive lineman taken below his worth. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Mitchell Evans in pick No. 224 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Circle this one: Jack Kiser at slot 249 is a fall that decides a draft. Stacking talent where they were already deep.