Recent top draft pick already being labeled a trade candidate for Raiders

The good news is that real football is barely a month away. The bad news is everything else that'll be written between now and then.

For instance, Bleacher Report just published a real doozy of a listicle titled, 'Raiders' Top Trade Candidates Ahead of 2024 Training Camp.' Look at all those keywords! The SEO! Surely it's a wonderful piece of informative content.

And in said wonderful piece of informative content, BR lists three of the Raiders best, youngest players and suggests that they get traded! Because that is how the NFL works and there's no other possible reason that someone would be motivated to speculate on the internet. So say goodbye to Michael Mayer, because once you're a Bleacher Report trade candidate, there's no going back. Here's some (the bare minimum really) of what they said.

Recent top draft pick already being labeled a trade candidate for Raiders

In a vacuum, trading tight end Michael Mayer just one year after using a second-round pick to select him wouldn't make much sense. However, the Raiders just used the 13th overall pick on Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, the second-ranked prospect at any position on the Bleacher Report Scouting Department's final draft board ... A world certainly exists where new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy looks to maximize both tight ends in his offense.

There's no guarantee that Getsy will use that approach, though ... Getsy could use a similar split in Las Vegas, especially with receivers Davante Adams, Jakobi Meters and Tre Tucker likely to limit the use of two-tight-end sets. If that's the case, recouping some of the Raiders' investment in Mayer could make sense.

You know it's a strong argument when your opening sentence debunks the next dozen. I've never worked for an NFL team team, but my guess is they aren't exactly in the business of trading away promising 2nd year players because they just happened to draft a Bleacher Report Scouting Department darling a year later. But maybe I'm wrong!

They also suggested that a trade could be on the table for Malcom Koonce, but admitted that "realistically, the Raiders would much rather extend [him] than trade him." So when you're talking to your Raiders friend about Koonce, just remember that the team might 1. trade him or 2. not trade him.

For the next month, let's just try to be normal NFL fans that only speculate about next year's free agent QB class. Please?