What to watch as Raiders go on the clock for NFL Draft first round

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 2 a.m.

Another NFL Draft day is upon us, and the Raiders find themselves in a familiar position heading into Thursday’s first round (5 p.m., ABC/ESPN/NFL Network), with a new head coach and general manager tandem looking to steer the franchise back toward something resembling success.

Las Vegas went through a similar situation just two years ago, when the team hired Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler as the brain trust. Two losing seasons later, both have been fired, and now it’s head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco looking to add quality rookies, starting with the No. 13 overall pick.

A primer on how the Raiders’ new front office might approach the first round:

The target

Some teams prefer to hold their cards close as the NFL Draft approaches, but there’s no doubt which player sits atop the Raiders’ wish list. The team’s desire to snag LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels is an open secret; the only question is whether they can finagle a way to acquire him.

Daniels was electric as a fifth-year senior in 2023, passing for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns while rushing for 1,134 yards and 10 scores. That earned him the Heisman Trophy and shot him up draft boards around the league.

Las Vegas has been looking for a long-term answer at quarterback since moving on from Derek Carr, and Daniels has the type of traits that suggest he could develop into a franchise cornerstone in short order. He’s also got enough experience — he started 55 games across his five collegiate seasons — to be ready to step in as a starter in Week 1 and learn on the job.

Though he didn’t run at the scouting combine, a glance at Daniels’s game film reveals his explosive dual-threat ability. He averaged 11.7 yards per pass attempt last year and 8.4 yards per rush. Surround him with playmakers like Davante Adams, Michael Mayer and Jakobi Meyers, and the front office can envision Daniels turning into a star in Las Vegas.

Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce helped recruit Daniels to Arizona State when he was an assistant there in 2020, and the two still maintain a strong relationship.

Asked at the league meetings in March whether he thought Daniels would translate to the NFL level, Pierce gave him a full endorsement.

“If you win a Heisman, most likely, yes,” Pierce said. “You can look at Jayden and all these quarterbacks — extremely talented. One thing about him that I think separates the rest is his ability to run. He could run-run, and when you can run like that in the SEC and put up those kind of numbers, I think that translates very well.”

The offer

Unfortunately for Las Vegas, which holds the No. 13 overall pick, Daniels’ monster 2023 campaign has made him a virtual lock for the top three.

If Raiders general manager Tom Telesco and head coach Antonio Pierce want him as much as everyone believes, they’ll have to package a bundle of picks in order to entice either Washington (No. 2 overall) or New England (No. 3) to trade down. The problem is, both of those teams are desperate for franchise quarterbacks, too, and are not motivated sellers. So far, trade chatter has been lukewarm at best.

What would it take for Las Vegas to jump into Daniels territory? In the 2021 draft, San Francisco moved up from No. 12 overall to No. 3 to select Trey Lance. The cost was the No. 12 in 2021, a first- and third-round pick in 2022, and another first-round pick in 2023. And while that’s close to the Raiders’ situation, it’s not fully analogous, because San Francisco’s trade partner, the Miami Dolphins, had drafted Tua Tagovailoa just a year earlier, so they were no longer in the market for a franchise quarterback.

In order to entice Washington or New England to move down, the Raiders will have to make it worth their while to pass on a potential star quarterback. Three firsts is probably just the starting point.

Speaking this week at his pre-draft press conference, Telesco said trade talks had begun in earnest, and that the Raiders — like all teams — are open to anything that makes them better.

“We have a plan right now to go up, if we have to, and be aggressive with it,” Telesco said. “We’ve got a plan if we stick at 13, obviously. We’ve got a plan to go back, if it’s within a certain range.”

Is Las Vegas prepared to make a Godfather offer to jump to the top of the draft board for Daniels? We should know within the first 30 minutes whether the Raiders are willing to pay the price to get their man.

The other guys

If the price of trading up is just too much, the Raiders have the option of staying at No. 13 and choosing from the second tier of quarterbacks. Daniels, Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy are all expected to be off the board before the Raiders pick, which would leave Washington passer Michael Penix and Oregon’s Bo Nix as the highest-rated prospects at the position.

Penix, a 6-foot-3 lefty with a big arm, was the Heisman runner-up to Daniels after passing for 4,903 yards and 36 touchdowns. There’s no doubt Penix can sling it, but he spent six years in college, leaving scouts to wonder how much untapped potential he has remaining. Nix is in a similar boat after five years in college, but he was highly productive in 2023, completing 77.4% for 4,508 yards and 45 touchdowns.

Both have been widely mocked to go in round one, so if the Raiders want to snag one of Penix or Nix, a trade down would be risky. It might have to be at No. 13, or otherwise take a shot at a sleeper in the middle rounds or wait until the 2025 draft altogether.

Blue-chippers

Though it’s the most important position in the game and the Raiders have a need, there’s no law that says they have to take a quarterback with their first pick.

With so many quarterbacks expected to go at the top of the draft, it should push down premium talent at other positions; if four QBs go before Las Vegas at No. 13, they’ll be able to select one of the top-10 position players. And Las Vegas could certainly use good players at other positions.

The No. 1 wide receiver, offensive tackle and edge rusher will likely be off the board, but depending on how it shakes out on Thursday night with other teams trading up and down, Las Vegas could find itself having its pick of the best cornerback or interior defensive lineman.

Byron Murphy, a 6-foot-1, 308-pound defensive tackle from Texas, would weaponize the Raiders’ defensive line alongside Maxx Crosby and prized free-agent acquisition Christian Wilkins. Las Vegas could also opt to make Alabama’s Terrion Arnold or Toledo's Quinyon Mitchell the first cornerback off the board.

Thanks to the early run on quarterbacks, the Raiders will get a shot at a blue-chip player.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.