The Las Vegas Raiders had a busy draft weekend as they loaded up on several positions and addressed major concerns across the roster. They were not able to address every need on the team and they stood pat with all of their draft picks.
Perhaps that is why according to Betway, Raiders fans were among the most disappointed fan bases in the NFL.
The way this was measured was using a social media watch tool to explore the comments directed towards the official Raiders twitter account and Raider Nation was 7th with just under 5,000 negative posts or comments towards the team account. Leading the way unsurprisingly were the Atlanta Falcons who drafted a quarterback in Michael Penix Jr just a month or so after giving Kirk Cousins $100 million guaranteed.
We can assume that most of the vitriol directed towards the Raiders was because of the fact that they were unable to add a quarterback at any point in the draft. There was hope that Penix would fall to them at pick 13 but Atlanta ended that dream and the Raiders were also unable to trade up to grab any of the other top quarterbacks.
Raiders decided to pass on a QB in the 2024 NFL Draft
Raiders beat writers suggested that the team did not view any of the quarterbacks outside of the top three as worthy of trading up for and some even hinted that they would not have drafted Penix even if he was available at 13. Aside from the first round, the Raiders did not use any of their other draft picks on some of the less heralded quarterbacks in the class.
Spencer Rattler out of South Carolina was a popular target for Raiders fans after the first batch of quarterbacks were off the board but the Raiders passed on him multiple times. There were other guys like Joe Milton out of Tennessee who would be a developmental prospect or Jordan Travis out of Florida State who may have been a much higher draft pick if he was healthy.
Aside from not addressing the quarterback position, there was some anger at the Raiders for “reaching” for Delmar Glaze and waiting too long to address the defensive backfield. The Raiders seemed to switch positions between drafting the best player available and addressing needs which is a solid way to draft based on where you are picking.
The negative comments should be outweighed by the fact that the Raiders were able to get two of the top prospects in the entire draft class with their first and second round picks. Most draft pundits had Brock Bowers going in the top 10 and Jackson Powers-Johnson as a first round pick and the Raiders were able to snag both of them with picks 13 and 44.
For those of us who have been following the draft since the NFL season ended, this looks to be a potentially great draft class for the raiders. They still have a massive need at quarterback but there was no need to force it and draft a player that the team did not think highly of. Hopefully those folks who spent their weekend tweeting angry things at the Raiders account can keep that in perspective.