For basically the last two months, Ashton Jeanty has been a Las Vegas Raider. It's not "technically" official yet, but it might as well be. Every single mock draft – ESPN, CBS Sports, our own, you name it – has mocked Jeanty to the Raiders with the 6th overall pick, and tbh, I don't hate it. I watched his pro day. And by watched his pro day, I mean I saw clips of it on Twitter. And really what's the difference?
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Things were getting a little stale, which simply will not fly for ESPN. Stale isn't retaining active users; the almighty link click must be fed, and constantly. They course corrected though, and in a fun way: in Matt Miller's latest 7-round (!!) mock draft, which dropped on Thursday morning, the Raiders found a new offensive weapon with their first round pick: Arizona WR Tetairoa McMillan.
New ESPN NFL Mock Draft has Raiders taking Arizona WR Tetairoa McMillan
"The Raiders need receivers more than running backs, and new general manager John Spytek might determine that he can wait and pick from a deep running back class later. Receiver isn't as deep, so Las Vegas should grab McMillan, whose 6-4 frame and ability to win contested catches has won him fans around the league. Some point to a lack of separation ability, but McMillan has enough juice to make tacklers miss underneath. That, combined with his physicality and toughness at the catch point, would make him the Raiders' instant WR1."
I'm not sure how much I agree with the idea that they need receivers more than they need running backs, but that's another blog for another day. Getting WR1 to pair with Geno Smith and Brock Bowers is awfully tempting, even if that means never wearing that black-and-silver Jeanty jersey that everyone's already pre-ordered. The Raiders' roster certainly isn't lacking for places that could use an upgrade, so in that sense it's nice that any direction they go in probably helps. Who said re-building had to be boring?!
A 6'4 wide receiver who's *so* gritty that he gets redundantly described as both physical and tough? Sign me up.