Raiders should be thinking about trading up into first round of the draft
The Las Vegas Raiders have a ton of draft capital this year. They have 12 picks that they could either use this year or trade away for players or higher picks. There are multiple options this team has to try and make the roster better. Of course, the most important draft pick, and the one […]
The Las Vegas Raiders have a ton of draft capital this year. They have 12 picks that they could either use this year or trade away for players or higher picks. There are multiple options this team has to try and make the roster better.
Of course, the most important draft pick, and the one that keeps getting talked about the most, is the seventh-overall pick, where the Raiders still don't really know what they are going to do. Everything depends on what the teams above them do, really.
If Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud are available, they will likely take one of the two. If not, they may just go best available, and we hope the best available is defensive guys because that's what's needed the most.
At seven they could go defensive back and grab Christian Gonzales from Oregon or Devon Witherspoon from Illinois. Or they could even snag Tyree Wilson, the edge rusher from Texas Tech.
But, there is a world where if they don't go defensive back with their first pick, the Raiders can still get one with elite potential after that. Here is how:
All of these draft picks aren't going to turn into players. That just won't happen. There are 12 picks at the moment, and some of them will be traded. Why not package two great picks for one good first-round pick?
If I'm the Raiders, I'm trading pick 70 and pick 109 for pick 30 from the Philadelphia Eagles. If they don't want to do that, I'd throw in pick 204. The Eagles have pick 10, so they wouldn't be opposed to trading their pick out of the back of the first round.
For the Raiders, they could then trade up and get a guy like Emmanuel Forbes, a cornerback from Mississippi State and a guy who had 14 total interceptions during his college career. If he's there, and he very well could be taken by then, they should grab him.
If not, there are still other cornerbacks that could be available to take after trading up like Cam Smith from South Carolina, Julius Brents from Kansas State, or maybe even Deonte Banks from Maryland if he is still there. And if there isn't anyone they like in the secondary, they can go defensive tackle.
Trading up makes too much sense, and the Raiders could easily do it. In fact, I think we see them make a couple of different moves on day one.
