As the Las Vegas Raiders look to fix the league's worst rushing attack from last season, signing Raheem Mostert is not enough. Which is why it's so easy to tie them to Ashton Jeanty with the sixth overall pick in the draft, to the point it's feeling possible they pass on him and wait to draft a running back from a deep class at the position.
It's also fair to say the Raiders are in a shade of win-now mode with Pete Carroll as head coach. They've already added one player who played for him in Seattle (Geno Smith), and there are others who still make sense (Tyler Lockett, in particular).
The Raiders should broadly be leaving no stones unturned this offseason in an effort to add talent, up to and including more trades to add veterans if it makes sense. Carroll will clearly have some influence on that, and pursuing players he's familiar with is a natural tentacle of those possibilities.
Raiders reportedly pursued a running back to reunite with Pete Carroll
On Tuesday's episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast, Hondo Carpenter of SI.com reiterated something he said about the Raiders trying to trade for a running back.
"You may remember, I talked to you about the fact, they were trying to trade for a running back. And word kind of leaked and eventually got out. It was Kenneth Walker," Carpenter said. "There was another one as well that hasn’t leaked. So we'll leave that off the table, but they're being aggressive."
Such as the Seahawks would even entertain moving him, Walker would be an easy trade target for the Raiders. Moe Moton of Bleacher Report tied the Raiders to Walker via a trade proposal a few weeks ago, while proposing Seattle would accept a sixth-round pick for him.
Walker struggled with injuries last season, and he's entering a contract year, but there's no way the Seahawks are so down on him they'd part with him for a Day 3 draft pick. The offer Carpenter seemed to suggest the Raiders made, apparently to no avail, was surely at least a Day 2 pick.
If the Raiders are pursuing Seahawks running backs who played for Carroll there, there's a better choice than Walker anyway: Zach Charbonnet. As with Walker, maybe they were also told he wasn't available. But Carpenter added "they're being aggressive," in a general sense, so a notable trade for a running back is still on the table as the draft gets closer.