QB? Or not QB? That is the question. Some drafts the answer should be obvious. For instance, the last two for the Raiders. And yet the answer seemed to be not to address it until the fourth round in 2023 and not address it at all last year.
This offseason, the Raiders made their first strong move to add a quarterback in more than a decade. They traded a late third round pick (92 overall) to Seattle to acquire Geno Smith. Previous regimes might dust their hands off and call it a day at the position. But that doesn’t seem to be the approach of the new regime led by GM John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll.
The Raiders have been doing all their homework this offseason on all the quarterbacks. And Spytek made it clear Friday that those visits are with the intention of drafting one if the talent matches up with the draft position.
“Remain open-minded,” Spytek said about drafting a QB. “Anybody that can help us at that position in particular is going to be up for consideration. You guys have all done your investigative journalism well enough to know that we brought some quarterbacks in and that wasn’t by accident by any means. And we remain open to the most important position in sports to get right, and we’re super excited to have Geno here, and we continue to expect him to be here for a while, but you can’t have too many of those guys.”
Trying to nail down which QB the Raiders are most interested in hasn’t been easy. Which is also by design. If you are looking at a quarterback, even if you have a pretty good idea of the one or ones you like, you don’t tip your hand. And inviting all of them to the facility is one way to not only get a good feel for each of them, but to not allow for anyone to read the tea leaves on which ones you favor.
Back in March, the Raiders were reportedly especially interested in Alabama QB Jalen Milroe and Texas QB Quinn Ewers. But that doesn’t mean that’s the totality of their list.
The draft unfolds in mysterious ways. For instance, Jalen Milroe could go in the first round. He will attend the draft which is often a good sign he goes day one. As will Jaxson Dart. And if the Raiders aren’t interested enough to trade up into the first round to get either of them, they could miss out.
On the flip side, Shedeur Sanders’s stock seems to have fallen. If teams like Jaxson Dart and Milroe better, could Sanders fall out of the first round? And if so, would the Raiders consider him at 37?
Ewers is a bit of a wildcard. He could go as early as round two and is expected to go no later than early round four.
It’s possible the Raiders miss out on all these guys. If so, there’s always Will Howard who projects to go in round 4-5. Chip Kelly would probably vouch for his National Championship signal caller to join the Raiders.
While this draft doesn’t appear to be top heavy like last year’s draft, there could be some talent the draft, making for a fairly good possibility that at some point in the first five rounds, the Raiders will be on the clock with a quarterback they deem worthy of the pick. And they will be ready to turn in that card to get the guy they want in that instance.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders NFL Draft: GM makes clear Las Vegas looking to take QB
QB? Or not QB? That is the question. Some drafts the answer should be obvious. For instance, the last two for the Raiders. And yet the answer seemed to be not to address it until the fourth round in 2023 and not address it at all last year.
This offseason, the Raiders made their first strong move to add a quarterback in more than a decade. They traded a late third round pick (92 overall) to Seattle to acquire Geno Smith. Previous regimes might dust their hands off and call it a day at the position. But that doesn’t seem to be the approach of the new regime led by GM John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll.
The Raiders have been doing all their homework this offseason on all the quarterbacks. And Spytek made it clear Friday that those visits are with the intention of drafting one if the talent matches up with the draft position.
“Remain open-minded,” Spytek said about drafting a QB. “Anybody that can help us at that position in particular is going to be up for consideration. You guys have all done your investigative journalism well enough to know that we brought some quarterbacks in and that wasn’t by accident by any means. And we remain open to the most important position in sports to get right, and we’re super excited to have Geno here, and we continue to expect him to be here for a while, but you can’t have too many of those guys.”
Trying to nail down which QB the Raiders are most interested in hasn’t been easy. Which is also by design. If you are looking at a quarterback, even if you have a pretty good idea of the one or ones you like, you don’t tip your hand. And inviting all of them to the facility is one way to not only get a good feel for each of them, but to not allow for anyone to read the tea leaves on which ones you favor.
Back in March, the Raiders were reportedly especially interested in Alabama QB Jalen Milroe and Texas QB Quinn Ewers. But that doesn’t mean that’s the totality of their list.
The draft unfolds in mysterious ways. For instance, Jalen Milroe could go in the first round. He will attend the draft which is often a good sign he goes day one. As will Jaxson Dart. And if the Raiders aren’t interested enough to trade up into the first round to get either of them, they could miss out.
On the flip side, Shedeur Sanders’s stock seems to have fallen. If teams like Jaxson Dart and Milroe better, could Sanders fall out of the first round? And if so, would the Raiders consider him at 37?
Ewers is a bit of a wildcard. He could go as early as round two and is expected to go no later than early round four.
It’s possible the Raiders miss out on all these guys. If so, there’s always Will Howard who projects to go in round 4-5. Chip Kelly would probably vouch for his National Championship signal caller to join the Raiders.
While this draft doesn’t appear to be top heavy like last year’s draft, there could be some talent the draft, making for a fairly good possibility that at some point in the first five rounds, the Raiders will be on the clock with a quarterback they deem worthy of the pick. And they will be ready to turn in that card to get the guy they want in that instance.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders NFL Draft: GM makes clear Las Vegas looking to take QB
