The Las Vegas Raiders are one of many first main wild playing cards within the 2025 NFL Draft, which begins on April 24 in Inexperienced Bay. In typical Raiders trend, there isn’t a actual consensus on what they could do with their No. 6 general choose, however there are a number of intriguing choices for them.
A quarterback, particularly Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, may very well be in play as a long-term choose to sit down behind veteran Geno Smith for a few years.
They’ve main wants throughout their roster.
However the way more seemingly, and maybe way more intriguing, choice is Boise State working again Ashton Jeanty.
The Raiders have been the favorites to land the highest working again prospect, and on Friday common supervisor John Spytek was requested about the potential for taking him on the prime of the draft, per NFL.com’s Grant Gordon.
Earlier than he may even reply, head coach Pete Carroll informed him to “watch out.”
Spytek then talked in regards to the significance of including elite gamers and drew a comparability to Saquon Barkley’s influence on the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I am gonna watch out about speaking about any particular participant. However, extra broadly to the working again query, I imply, we simply noticed Saquon Barkley simply change the Eagles in a single 12 months. Now they’d an awesome workforce round him, and it was including an elite participant. I feel once you sit the place we sit, the thought is so as to add elite gamers at any place. I do not attempt to devalue any sure place.”
The Jeanty choose goes to be a sophisticated one for no matter workforce finally ends up taking him within the first spherical.
He’s indubitably some of the proficient gamers within the draft, the very best at his place and was a fully dominant participant in faculty. There are loads of issues to love about him, and he can completely change an offense and a workforce if every thing goes in response to plan.
The secret is it must be the fitting workforce and the fitting offense.
The Barkley comparability really affords fairly a cautionary story for a workforce just like the Raiders, and Spytek even unintentionally talked about it in his reply: The Eagles already “had an awesome workforce round him.”
Barkley was additionally signed as a free agent. The Eagles didn’t have to make use of a top-10 choose so as to add him into their group.
He was the ultimate piece of their Tremendous Bowl puzzle, not one of many beginning items.
One of many greatest causes the working again place turned so devalued in recent times wasn’t simply due to how quick their careers are. It is usually due to how dependent their manufacturing and influence is on the workforce and scenario round them. They want an awesome line, a powerful passing recreation and system for every thing to click on.
Barkley had none of that when he performed for the New York Giants after they chose him with a No. 2 general choose. As a substitute of getting him be the ultimate piece of their offense, he was the piece they tried to construct round. And whereas Barkley had some particular person success, it was not the identical as he skilled in Philadelphia. The workforce success was nowhere near the identical. It was not as a result of he was totally different. The scenario was totally different.
It’s a comparable story with the newest working again to be picked within the prime 10, Atlanta Falcons working again Bijan Robinson. He’s nice, dynamic and makes loads of performs. However remainder of the Falcons offense is so flawed that it has not but made a huge effect on their offense or their workforce success.
Jeanty may very well be a steal and quick influence participant for anyone within the first spherical. But it surely needs to be a workforce that already has a lot of the different core gamers in place.
Are the Raiders that workforce? There needs to be some doubt about that, and the Raiders want to concentrate on that.
