The Las Vegas Raiders have been heavily praised for their work in the 2025 NFL Draft. New general manager John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll put together a masterclass on paper, and it should be a stepping stone to turn around this once-great organization.
Throughout the seven rounds, the team addressed almost every major hole on the roster. Any question marks that the Raiders now have can be addressed with veteran free agents, as Las Vegas still boasts over $43 million in cap space.
Not every team in the NFL put together a great draft class, however. Notably, division rivals like the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers have been dragged for several of the decisions they made during the event.
Raiders fans can only laugh as ESPN expert throws shade at Broncos' draft reach
Analysts from ESPN put together a piece in which they named who they believed were the best and worst picks in this year's draft. Field Yates was particularly hard on the Broncos' third-round selection of Illinois wide receiver Pat Bryant.
"This was a reach relative to my own rankings, as I thought Bryant was a Day 3 pick after posting a 4.61 in the 40-yard dash at the combine," Yates wrote. "There are traits of Bryant's game I admire: He's a strong route runner, has extremely reliable hands and was a clutch performer in college. This pick was just earlier than expected."
The Broncos desperately needed to add wide receiver help this offseason, and they failed to find any real solutions in free agency. That caused them to reach for Bryant in the middle of Day 2, when they could have easily landed him in a later round.
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While Denver certainly made an error selecting Bryant where they did, they could have mitigated this blunder by choosing Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden in the first round when he was available. Instead, the team opted for cornerback Jahdae Barron, who is a solid player, but is not as big of a need as Golden was.
They also could have selected highly coveted wideout Kyle Williams at the end of the second round, or chosen Jaylin Noel in the third round, who many had a second-round grade on. However, head coach Sean Payton always tries to be the smartest person in the room, which netted him Bryant much earlier than other franchises expected.
Bryant could certainly turn out to be a solid player in the NFL, but ESPN draft expert Field Yates certainly doesn't think this was a great pick. Raider Nation should be basking in this rare instance where a bitter AFC West foe is being dragged by the media instead of them.