Why Raiders shouldn't tear down roster quite yet

Once the Davante Adams trade news dropped, Raider Nation seemed to lose its collective mind. Calls for the team to tear down the roster the studs were louder than they have been a while.

There is merit to the idea that the Raiders should start over. They haven't had a hard reset since the 2018 season (Jon Gruden's first year), and it does somewhat feel like a total rebuild is in order. However, I'm here to tell you that it's still too early to completely give up on this roster.

In recent years, we've seen how much a quarterback can make a difference. The Houston Texans went from having the second-worst record in the NFL to being a playoff team from 2022 to 2023. The Washington Commanders were the second-worst team in the NFL last season. They are 4-2 right now and look like the best team in the NFC East.

The Raiders will be aggressive in going after a quarterback next year. Do they want a New England Patriots situation where they effectively have to waste a year because their young quarterback has nothing to work with?

What if Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward are the real deal and the Raiders are able to get them? Wouldn't you rather put them in a position to succeed than have them beat to a pulp early in their career?

Right now, the Raiders hold the No. 11 pick in the draft. Out of the 10 teams drafting ahead of them, every one of them either has a young quarterback who has been drafted in the first round the last two years or an expensive veteran.

Also, there's a very good chance the Raiders will finish the season with a better draft position than the Bengals, Jets and Saints. With the way this team is playing, I wouldn't bet against them finishing with a top-five pick.

If you have a top-five pick and the teams picking ahead of you don't need quarterbacks, then you probably don't need to trade away your best players to acquire more draft capital. It's not like the Raiders need salary cap space. They are projected to have $108 million in cap space this offseason, which could grow even further with some other moves.

So if they don't need cap space or a ton of picks to draft a quarterback, why trade away Kolton Miller and/or Maxx Crosby? It makes much more sense to keep the core in place and see what a young quarterback could do with a talented team around them.

Sanders or Ward are going to look a lot better if they have a great left tackle like Miller blocking for them. General manager Tom Telesco isn't responsible for a terrible Raiders draft yet but why are fans so keen to give up great players for draft picks when the team has failed to make the most of those picks for years?

It might not seem like it but the Raiders could be competent quarterback play away from being a playoff team. The Raiders have torn their roster down to the studs multiple times in the last two decades and where did that lead them? The team needs to take a nuanced approach to building this roster and just blowing the roster just to blow it up doesn't make any sense.