Raiders 7-round Mock Draft: Trading back on Day 1 and still selecting a franchise QB

In this mock draft, we take the opportunity to pick up another second round pick by trading next I got the pick 13 and 113 to the Jacksonville Jaguars for pick 17 and pick 48. Despite falling back a few places, the Raiders are still able to select one of the top quarterbacks in the draft and JJ McCarthy out of Michigan.

You may wonder how drafting a quarterback in the first round is going to help the Raiders build a bully and the answer is that even the toughest teams need a quarterback and we might as well get one that's incredibly tough as well. We've talked at length about the upside that McCarthy has when it comes to his physical tools and we know that he can be part of an offense that deploys a punishing running game.

McCarthy was not the most prolific rusher in 2023 with just sixty carries for 171 yards but in 2022 he ran the ball 70 times for 306 yards and five touchdowns. He has good size at 6-3 and 202lbs but can definitely stand to add a few pounds in order to withstand some of the punishment at the NFL level.

We are very anxious to see how McCarthy tests out at the NFL combine and this draft may be published after the fact but we will definitely reflect the updated combine statistics in our next mock. There is already enough on tape about McCarthy to justify picking him in the first round but an excellent combined performance could help survive that and help him become the future franchise quarterback of the Las Vegas Raiders.