The Las Vegas Raiders and their fan base are still scarred by the Khalil Mack trade. Not only did the team largely squander the mountain of draft picks that they got in return for the NFL's best defender at the time, but they've been tormented by him as an opponent in the years since his departure.
Thankfully, the team saved itself from embarrassment by selecting Maxx Crosby in the fourth round of the following year's draft. What flies under the radar, however, is the fact that the Raiders whiffed on Clelin Ferrell with the No. 4 overall pick in 2019, their original replacement plan for Mack.
Mack, like Crosby, was a superstar on an always underperforming Raiders team. It's the same story again this year for Crosby in Las Vegas, but thankfully, he is not the centerpiece of a trade idea involving a Raiders defensive end going to the Chicago Bears.
ESPN proposes Tyree Wilson-Braxton Jones swap for Raiders and Bears
That distinction now belongs to third-year player Tyree Wilson, who ESPN's Bill Barnwell included in his recent list of trade ideas that make sense. In return for sending Wilson to Chicago, the Bears would send offensive tackle Braxton Jones to Las Vegas.
While the Raiders could certainly use some offensive tackle help at the moment, Kolton Miller should return sometime before the end of the season, and DJ Glaze is coming into his own at right tackle. Jones is not exactly an elite upgrade, as he just lost his starting job to UDFA Theo Benedet.
Wilson, by contrast, has been on the verge of a breakout for the Raiders over the last three seasons, and it seems like he is finally putting the pieces together. In what is a proposed straight-up, player-for-player deal by Barnwell, it would not make sense for Las Vegas to oblige.
It is true that Wilson has wildly underperformed compared to his No. 7 overall selection in 2023, but he is still a solid edge rusher for the Raiders, and arguably more effective than Malcolm Koonce at this point.
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Whereas Wilson is trending up, Jones is trending down. The former is just getting comfortable in the system, and the latter is in need of a change of scenery. Stone Forsythe hasn't set the world on fire at left tackle for Las Vegas, but he is just a placeholder in Miller's absence.
Charles Grant, a third-rounder in this past year's draft, is supposed to be the swing tackle of the future. The 2026 class is supposed to feature a smattering of intriguing prospects as well, so this deal just doesn't make sense for the Raiders.
Not to mention, Wilson is not in a contract year, Koonce is, and Las Vegas would be giving up someone who is potentially a big part of their future for an underwhelming offensive tackle that would be a mere half-year rental.
Fans are certainly glad to see Maxx Crosby's name omitted from trade proposals at this point, with the Chicago Bears no less, but getting rid of Wilson would also be a bad move. In what is likely to be an already-lost season, the Raiders can't give up a piece of their future for an unproven "solution."