Raiders 2023 7-round NFL Mock Draft: Las Vegas moves on from Derek Carr

Raiders 2023 7-round NFL Mock Draft: Las Vegas moves on from Derek Carr

As we have covered in previous mock drafts, the Raiders have lacked a true deep threat in this version of the offense. Davante Adams has been reborn as more of a deep threat this year with Derek Carr but you can never have too much speed at wide receiver.

Our last mock draft had the Raiders grabbing Jaylin Hyatt early in the draft, but with a focus on defense in this mock, we grab Trey Palmer out of Nebraska with the 140th pick. Palmer started his career with the LSU Tigers, who are known to produce incredible NFL wide receivers, and then transferred to Nebraska for his final season.

He led all Cornhusker wide receivers with 71 catches for 1043 yards and nine touchdowns.

Palmer has solid size at 6-1 and 190lbs and ran his 40 in 4.44 seconds. Scouts rave about his balance and strong hands and most notably they point out his ability to track the ball down field. This was an issue for the Raiders this season as any receiver not named Davante Adams had trouble tracking deep balls.

Despite his 4.4 speed, scouts worried that he does not have elite level game speed to take the top off of a defense. In the Raiders’ offense however, he will likely have the benefit of single coverage and safeties shading over to Waller and Adams so creating separation and beating his man downfield should be much easier. He projects as an immediate improvement to the Raiders wide receiver group and is a great value pick.