The consensus around the league has been that the Las Vegas Raiders performed incredibly well during the 2025 NFL Draft, and for good reason.
First-time general manager John Spytek made 11 selections in total and grabbed a variety of players. Some will be Week 1 starters, others have high-end traits and large upsides to grow into, and the rest were pure winners that will undoubtedly find ways to contribute.
Las Vegas is building this team for the future, and they took a major step in that direction during this year's draft.
Raiders disrespect in recent NFL Draft grade proves they're doing something right
Not everyone was convinced, however, that the Raiders made the right choices last weekend. The Athletic's Austin Mock put together composite scores for each NFL team based on the player value, positional value and trade value of each of their picks.
By these metrics, Las Vegas was looked upon unfavorably for seemingly the first time in the post-draft process. Mock gave them a "D" grade, which placed them firmly in the bottom third of the league.
More ridiculous than the rating itself, however, is that Mock provides no explanation for why or how the Raiders received this low score. Some teams had their selections analyzed, but Las Vegas was criticized without Mock feeling the need to defend himself. Analysts are not used to seeing the Silver and Black make strong decisions in the draft, and it is intimidating to the lazy notion that the Raiders are a poorly run franchise.
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The likely reason that the Raiders graded so poorly was that they took a running back in the first round and waited until late in Day 3 to address the quarterback position. But each team is on a different timeline and cannot be made into one-to-one comparisons.
Las Vegas has a quarterback for the next few years, so unless the team is truly in love with one of the prospects in this class, it would have been ill-advised for them to draft one. The Raiders also had the worst rushing attack in the league last year, and they mitigated that with drafting the best running back in the class, so "positional value" can mean different things for different teams.
Head coach Pete Carroll is the perfect leader and developer to turn these young players with high ceilings into great NFL players, and it will be a joy for Raider Nation to watch this happen before their eyes. A few years down the road, if the team has several Pro Bowl or All-Pro level players from this class, it won't matter what some statistical algorithm said before these players ever played in an NFL game.