The Raiders’ 2024 season has made one thing very clear: one way or another, Las Vegas needs a new quarterback next year.
Their quest to find a new signal-caller may have taken a hit in Week 16, as the Raiders’ victory over the Jaguars dropped them from second to sixth in the projected order for the 2025 NFL Draft.
While Las Vegas will take a hard look at any quarterback available in free agency, the team is expected to draft a quarterback in the first round at the direction of owner Mark Davis, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. But with up to three other teams in the first five picks targeting quarterbacks – including the Giants, the Titans, and even the Browns – the Raiders’ front office may have to get aggressive to fulfill Davis’ mandate.
Only Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedur Sanders are currently viewed as surefire first-round quarterback prospects, but that view may not be shared by new Raiders minority owner Tom Brady. He is expected to play a major role in the team’s personnel decisions and will surely have strong opinions about the available quarterback talent. That could expand Las Vegas’ search beyond Ward and Sanders or narrow it down to just one of the two. If it’s the former, staying at the sixth overall pick could still net the Raiders their desired prospect. If it’s the latter, trading up in the draft becomes an expensive necessity.
The Raiders will also have to decide on the futures of head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco, which will impact their quarterback plans. Even if one or both are retained, they’ll be on the hot seat next season. Waiting until the 2026 draft won’t be an option if they want to keep their jobs, further incentivizing a first-round quarterback selection next April.
The Raiders play the Saints in Week 17 before hosting the Chargers in Week 18. Pierce insisted on Monday that the Raiders don’t play “for anybody’s draft projections,” per Breer, but Davis, Telesco, and Brady could see it differently.
Franchise trajectories have been altered by late-season wins and losses, including a memorable Week 18 win by the Texans in 2022. That gave the Bears the No. 1 overall pick, kicking off a chain of events that resulted in Bryce Young going to Carolina in 2023 and Caleb Williams landing in Chicago a year later.
For the raiders sake I hope Brady is given a big say in all these decisions. I trust him more than mark davis to make the right call.
Just because you were one of the great players doesn’t mean you know how to evaluate talent. See Jordan and Jeter in those roles.
See John Elway, John Lynch and Ozzie Newsome
@GoBills- The 3 you named are all such varying degrees of quality that I can’t tell if you’re saying former players are good or bad at it. I think you’re suggesting they were good, but you listed John Elway lol
He won a Super Bowl, 2 afc titles, four or five division titles, mostly in the playoffs… it ended badly though, that is true.
Ozzie was one of the great GM’s ever, Lynch has built a first class operation. I would say all were very successful.
He won with Brian Xanders’ roster, who never should have been let go. Xanders and his front office personnel drafted Von Miller, Demaryius Thomas, Chris Harris, Julius Thomas, Orlando Franklin, Eric Decker, Zane Beadles, Malik Jackson, Derek Wolfe, Danny Trevathan, Rahim Moore, Robert Ayers, and Knowshon Moreno over a 3 year span. Xanders also signed/extended guys like Dawkins, Dumervil, B. Marshall, etc.
The Broncos were impatient with the wrong guy. Head coach, not GM, was the problem; instead they canned Xanders and hired Elway who left John Fox in charge anyway despite being the obvious weak link in the org. Probably would have won sooner if they left Xanders in charge.
I can name way more than just Jeter and Jordan. In multiple sports too.
Gretzky, Magic Johnson, Bart Starr, Chris Mullin, Matt Millen
Again just because you’re great doesn’t mean you can evaluate talent. It’s different. I wouldn’t make Brady’s recommendation the end all be all as you seem to be set on. I’d ask his opinion if I was MD but there’s a reason you hired a GM.
Also elway did win with Xanders as his advisor. Den bumped Xanders from GM because they wanted elway (gotta be a great GM because he was a great player right). In reality they should’ve kept Xanders (who’s helped build the Rams since he left Den). His draft classes were iconic. Elway…not so much.
Actually elway as GM never went to the playoffs after that 2015 SB. That 2015 team was mainly built by Xanders.
So I’d classify elway as not a good GM.
Just hope they find a qb that can let brock bowers keep rolling. Dudes mom taught me middle school algebra lol
NFL thought processes are so broken. Common logic dictates that the ONLY way to build a successful team is to draft a QB at the top of the first round and then push all your chips in to rapidly build a talented roster before the QB hits free agency. There is SO MUCH risk in that plan.
A better plan is to build up a quality roster, hire a coach who can utilize the talents of multiple QB’s/QB skill sets, and then be opportunistic in landing a passer through the draft or other means.
The Raiders do need a different QB for next season. They do not need to draft one at the top of the first round. Either take the best player available or trade down and acquire more picks. Drafting for positional need will see you doing it again in three years.
That last sentence should be stenciled in every NFL front office
Spot on.
The Raiders absolutely need a QB, but they have needs in other areas, too. If there are player(s) you like better on the board than what is available at QB, you take them. The objective is to build the best team, not just upgrade at QB. If you can land a QB you like better than anyone else at your position, then ok.
I don’t think either QB comes available to the Raiders though, as things stand. Trading up would be foolish, in my opinion, because of the cost. It’s also just not a deep QB class. There is nothing wrong with drafting good players at other positions, however, and getting your QB next year.
NFL thought process is not broken. Headquarters priority is just different from we fanatics. They are interested in growing wealth year round while we want our team to have a winning season. In their mind, talking up QBs 24/7/365 a year is a sure fire way to goose revenue.
Also there are no plug and play QB’s this draft anyway. They will all need development time, but that could be said for 80% of 1st round QBs anyway.
Ironically a decent bridge for Raiders that may become available is Carr.
I find it funny that the Raiders will supposedly be pushed into drafting a QB in the first round by the guy who was drafted in the 6th round and became the GOAT. He could be looking for a later round, under the radar guy, like himself, Brock Purdy or his hero, Joe Montana (3rd round). He may feel like he can find a late round gem.
This narrative is already getting old.
Try to get Darnold as a bridge and build around him. Sixth pick you ain’t getting a franchise QB in 2025 lmao
Getting rid of Telesco after he finally ended our curse of not drafting well in the 1st round would be premature.
What a dysfunctional franchise. They even find a way to bungle their draft position….