Raiders finally land franchise quaterback in first 2025 ESPN mock draft

Finally, the first Raiders blog in months that won't leave with you overwhelming amounts of dread. This here sentence will be the only one that mentions Gardner Minshew, Aidan O'Connell *or* Derek Carr. All three of those guys are the past, and the Raiders now have a future – a theoretical, highly unlikely future.

And you can credit ESPN! They're trying to help this time. The worldwide leader released their first 2025 NFL Mock Draft recently because, sigh, of course they did. There's never a bad time for a mock draft!!! This draft is slightly more tolerable because they decided to be nice to the Raiders and give them a franchise quarterback, so I can look past this one. It's not Shedeur Sanders, though. :(

ESPN's Mock Draft Sends Quinn Ewers to the Raiders. Hell yeah ESPN

"Ewers is a fun study with his smooth delivery and capacity to change arm angles to make creative throws. He has to be more consistent throwing downfield, but he can really carve up a defense with his intermediate accuracy. Ewers' functional mobility is also very good and allows him to work around the pocket effectively."

Quinn Ewers! That's fun. He has that certain je ne sais quoi that fits the Raiders' ethos – he's like Minshew in that way, but actually good. If he can hold of Archie Manning for a second straight season, I will be so, so sold on this pick. Ewers, Davante Adams, and Brock Bowers isn't too shabby of a core, and complimentary guys like Michael Mayer, Jakobi Meyers, and Tre Tucker make the Raiders offense look, dare I say, almost competent?

It's probably wise to not get too emotional about mock drafts this early in the year, but wisdom is for fools. Quinn Ewers is a Raider! He may have to chat with Zamir White about getting the #3 back, but we can cross that bridge when we get there. Time to go watch a bunch of Texas tape.