In 2022, Josh McDaniels' first season as head coach, the Las Vegas Raiders finished 6-11. He and general manager Dave Ziegler represented the latest effort by a team to bring in "The Patriot Way" that was so successful in New England, but it would take time to build that foundation.
Unfortunately, after trading their first and second-round picks for Davante Adams the year prior, the 2023 NFL Draft was supposed to be the ground floor of that foundation, if it was to eventually be built by Zeigler and McDaniels. Here are the nine selections that the Raiders made in that draft.
- DE Tyree Wilson
- TE Michael Mayer
- DT Byron Young
- WR Tre Tucker
- CB Jakorian Bennett
- QB Aidan O’Connell
- S Chris Smith II
- LB Amari Burney
- DT Nesta Jade Silvera
As those players enter what would be the final year of their rookie contracts, only Mayer, Tucker and O'Connell are still on the Raiders' roster. Two, Wilson and Bennett, have been traded since John Spytek became the general manager in 2025. The rest feel like they've already been long gone.
McDaniels and Zeigler did not last to November of 2023 before being fired, and the remnants of that year's draft class are on their fourth head coach now. While the better part of the last two decades has been dismal for the Silver and Black, a big whiff on a top-10 pick makes that draft a low point of recent years which hasn't been recovered from.
Re-grade of 2023 draft reveals core of Raiders' current situation
Pete Prisco of CBS Sports originally gave the Raiders' 2023 draft what now looks like an overly optimistic B+ grade. His re-grade of that group, as expected, landed a well-deserved 'F.'
"They used the seventh-overall pick on defensive end Tyree Wilson, who was a major flop. So much so they traded him to the Saints last month for essentially a fifth-round pick. Tight end Michael Mayer came in the second. He's a solid player, but not special. Third-round pick Byron Young was cut two years ago. The best pick might be receiver Tre Tucker in the third. He had 57 catches and five touchdowns last season."
Prisco acknowledged his big miss, though to be fair, he was one of many who bought into Wilson's potential.
"I loved the pick of Wilson in the first and also liked fourth-round corner Jakorian Bennett, who is now with the Eagles. He did start for the Raiders before the trade to Philly. I didn't love Tucker in the third, but he has been OK. I did think they had a good draft. The reality is it's below average with the big miss on Wilson, who is now with the Saints after being traded there in April."
The roots of the current situation for the Raiders, which finally came to a bottoming out head last season, sits with what they've not gotten from a draft class that hasn't been able to settle into anything stable thus far.
As could've been foreseen at the time based on history elsewhere, the "Patriot Way" only worked when you had the people in place who made it work, not knock-off facsimiles who got high-level opportunites by merely being associated with that success.
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