Plenty's been made about the new-look Raiders offense this offseason, and for good reason: it's not every year that a team undergoes the makeover that Las Vegas did this year. Replacing a head coach and quarterback in the same offseason is as big a swing as you'll see, and the Raiders – on paper, at least – did well to replace Antonio Pierce and Gardner Minshew/Aiden O'Connell with, respectively, Pete Carroll and Geno Smith/not Gardner Minshew.
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At the very least, they raised the floor. Even if they don't get half the contributions from guys that they're expecting to right now, the Raiders' offense figures to be miles better than it was last year. Giving Ashton Jeanty the ball 25+ times per game certainly won't hurt. But according to Bleacher Report, Jeanty isn't the only rookie that could unlock certain dynamics not seen in the Raiders' offense for years. Basically, it's time to lean into the Dont'e Thornton hype.
Dont'e Thornton could be the missing piece to Pete Carroll's offense in 2025
"All eyes are going to be on second-round pick Jack Bech as the Raiders install Pete Carroll's offense. However, fourth-round pick Dont'e Thornton has the potential to make a name for himself as well. At 6'5", 205 pounds and a 4.3 40, he has all the size and speed you could want in a receiver. However, Jakobi Meyers has been impressed with the other things Thornton does well as a receiver. 'He's not just a guy that can run fast. He's got some real receiver capabilities to him so I'm excited to kind of help grow him and help push him along,' he said, per Jesse Merrick of News 3 LV. Thornton could be the deep threat the Raiders' room doesn't have on paper right now."
Who knows how realistic this will end up actually being, but it's just nice that the Raiders' offense is so good that 'breakout candidates' are still, like the 4th- or 5th-best option. They don't need Thornton to be a deep-shot star immediately, and I'd argue that's even more exciting than the fact that he could be. But if they *did* knock this draft as far out of the park as analysts think they did, and Thornton *is* immediately a viable deep-shot offense, they're going to surprise some people. And for Year 1 of the Great Pete Carroll Experiment, that's not a bad place to be.