D-
Las Vegas Raiders
Beck is the plan now, and the Raiders grade out a D-.
by gtygg ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 1 steals
· 3 reaches
When the story of this class is written, it opens with Tim Smith at pick 167, a reach of 40 spots that the board flatly disagrees with. A D- that will need time and luck to look better.
The trades bled value they could not afford to lose. Everything downstream of Carson Beck depends on Carson Beck, and the building knows it.
A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. Brown falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch.
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
They paid sticker price for Carson Beck in the Round 1 slot, and that is fine. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
In No. 19 they get an island corner. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Xavier Nwankpa at the 39th overall pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Value with a capital V on Barion Brown in Round 3, Pick 7, a genuine coup. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A tidy little value on Jamon Dumas-Johnson in slot 103, a step better than break-even. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
Phil Mafah at pick No. 135 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Tim Smith in the 167th overall pick, miles early. A need, and now a little less of one.
A wild overpay on Dylan Fairchild in slot 199, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.