Raiders land Pete Carroll's next star running back in NFL Draft expert's latest mock draft

Are ... are the Raiders kinda sick?
Las Vegas Raiders Introduce Pete Carroll As Head Coach, John Spytek As General Manager
Las Vegas Raiders Introduce Pete Carroll As Head Coach, John Spytek As General Manager | Ethan Miller/GettyImages

Here's some exciting news: there's still an entire month left before the actual NFL Draft. You know how you've felt this beleaguered, exhausted sensation wash over you with every new mock draft that hits the internet? How you've wondered to yourself – even cried out loud – that there's no way this many mock drafts are necessary? When they say there's no rest for the weary, they're exclusively talking about NFL Draft aggregators.

RELATED: Pete Carroll continues to strengthen Raiders' secondary with sneaky good signing

NFL.com dropped a new one on Tuesday, and reader, it's slick. It doesn't, you know, change a whole lot of anything, but it gives us all a week's worth of draft hype while we wait for the last of the WR5's to sign their one-year deals, so I'll take it. At least when you pick your poison, you get a choice.

And this one is especially fun for the Raiders because [drumroll] they land one of the 'Top 3' players in the draft! Without having to trade up! It's like last year all over again, except without the weird Bo Nix stuff. How does a nice, freshly-printed Ashton Jeanty Raiders jersey sound to you?


Raiders land Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty in NFL.com's latest mock draft

"The Raiders can take some pressure off of Geno Smith by adding Jeanty, who is one of the top three players in the draft."

One (1) single sentence! Brevity is the soul of wit, and also apparently NFL Draft content? I guess you don't need to explain your case that much when you're trying to sell *Ashton Jeanty* to Raiders fans. The Chiefs are still unfortunately the Chiefs, but a Geno Smith-Brock Bowers-Ashton Jeanty kiiiiiiinda looks like the start of a team that could make some noise in the AFC West next season. Not a lot of noise, but enough to make people stop laughing when the Raiders are on national TV. Baby steps, etc.

We'll see you for next week's NFL mock draft, which has the Raiders going in an entirely different direction. That's the fun of the NFL Draft – no other event brings out so many experts who aren't actually required to be confident about anything. I prefer that all my NFL news to comes as a hunch, frankly.

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