While a recent report indicated that the Raiders were focused on Shedeur Sanders, the Colorado QB may not truly be the organization’s top choice at the position. According to Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda, there’s a general belief around the NFL that the Raiders are a prime contender to move up in the draft in pursuit of Miami QB Cam Ward.
[RELATED: Raiders May Be Homing In On QB Shedeur Sanders]
This year’s top tier of quarterback prospects only consists of Ward and Sanders. However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Miami product has separated himself as QB1. In other words, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the QB-needy Raiders would pursue the top positional prospect.
It is noteworthy that they’d be willing to give up the prerequisite trade haul vs. just settling with Sanders. For what it’s worth, Pauline says there are plenty of league sources who believe the Raiders will just take Sanders at No. 6 if they can’t work out a trade for Ward. Still, it sounds like the front office has a preference, and it seems to match the general sentiment from around the NFL.
According to Pauline, some scouts are discouraged by Sanders’ lack of development in 2024, and the QB could require “a lot of coaching” to refine his throwing fundamentals. If push comes to shove, it sounds like the Raiders are at least willing to tolerate those growing pains, especially since Tom Brady has “a great amount of respect for Sanders’ focus on preparation, his ability to learn and adapt, his accuracy and determination in the pocket, and his toughness to take hits and still be resilient.”
The Raiders were positioned to land the first-overall pick in the draft before winning two of their final three games, dropping the organization to the sixth-overall selection. Despite the fact they won’t have their pick of the litter, it sounds like the Raiders can still walk away with one of the draft’s top quarterback prospects.
Classic raiders making a stupid possibly horrible to making even a worse one. They need to get a weapon in this draft for whoever is in the draft next year
“According to Pauline, some scouts are discouraged by Sanders’ lack of development in 2024, and the QB could require ‘a lot of coaching’ to refine his throwing fundamentals.”
“Scouts” said that about Josh Allen too and he’s now an elite QB. Why don’t we just give him a chance first to see what he does at the NFL level? Being able to devote himself full time to football without academics being involved will allow him to get that coaching.
What? Are you suggesting to throw scouting out the window and blindly throw darts at the wall? For every Josh Allen there’s 10 Trey lances.
Did he care about academics?
I mean, I think Sanders is a solid quarterback prospect who gets a lot of grief that has little to do with him, but he doesn’t have a huge arm or exceptional athleticism, while Josh Allen has some of the greatest physical gifts I’ve ever seen in a quarterback, so that’s not the best example to bring up.
Why don’t we just give him a chance first to see
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Because seeing how he does comes after drafting him. If you are considering drafting him, waiting to see how he does makes no sense.
OMG that would be awesome!!! QB JaMarcus Russell 2.0 there isn’t a QB worth a first round pick in this draft
You could be correct but what is the point in being in Las Vegas if you’re not going to gamble? Mediocrity is the ceiling if you stick with stopgap QBs.
Tenn – Ward
CLE – Sanders
NYG – Howard
NE – Hunter
There’s no chance Carter falls out of the top 3, let alone 4.
This draft is incredibly loaded with edge rushers
Wouldn’t be shocked to see Carter slip as far as 7. These teams can address edge early r2
That said, this is obviously a troll towards Giants fans with them taking Will Howard at 3 reminiscent of their reach for Daniel Jones
Giants take Hunter or Carter and pray Dart is available in second round.
Call me curious( Bah dum bump) But exactly how are the Raiders going to Get Matthew Stafford, Giving up their 1st round pick, And then trading their first round pick( They don’t have anymore) to move up to get Ward? That’s not even counting the 50 million Stafford wants. I’ve heard of Blind Ambition, But this is Stevie Wonder blind. You can tell Brady must be involved in this somehow. Just a guess, But When you’ve had kids with Bridget and Giselle anything seems doable I guess.
They wouldn’t do both; they’re just dabbling in everything. Even entertaining the idea of trading up for Ward somewhat sends the message they don’t have a concrete direction in place. Trading for Stafford would be a “win now” move, and in my opinion drafting Sanders would be closer to that goal. I like Sanders intangibles, and to me, he is my QB1 in a weaker class
Ward, on the other hand, feels like a commitment to a three year plan. I’m honestly just not that high on him. He is going to need coached too.
Either way, you don’t mortgage your future to move up in this draft for a QB. Play the board. Absolute worst case, you just draft Jeanty. That wouldn’t be a bad choice for Pete’s style of offense, given he likes to run the football.
Unclemike, I hope your comment was sarcasm. Surely you don’t think Raider would trade #6 overall pick for Stafford?
I didn’t say it , The article did. It says Rams want 1st round pick for Stafford. So if quoting the article is sarcastic, You need to talk to writer, Not me. If you’re asking me it would be as stupid as the Rodgers move. I wouldn’t want him for 50 million and a first. Either one would be stupid IMO but then there are stupid people in the NFL aren’t there? See Jets, Browns,Saints etc.
If they actually traded up it would be for Sanders. Do people not know how close Brady and Sanders is? They talk and text and he has helped Sanders over the last few years.
Notice how the article states “there is a belief around the NFL “ that the raiders will trade up. This is all speculation. It’s click bait. Raiders will be connected to EVERY available QB this offseason by the media.
Yawn.
I know that the NFL is a Quarterback driven league but Ward and Sanders are only in the conversation because this draft is so BAD for QBs’. There are others that can be drafted later in the 1st round or in later rounds that will be as good or better than Ward and Sanders. The one that keeps coming up is Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss and he reminds me of Bo Nix. I said before the draft that Bo Nix
would be a stud and surprise people and I got shredded for those comments and guess what…it looks like the Broncos have a QB that can play and will be there for a long time…Bo Nix. I get the same vibe about Jaxson Dart…his numbers are as good or better than both Ward and Sanders.
The big thing about Dart is he hasn’t ran anything resembling a pro style offense, and I’d be incredibly concerned about his ability to make reads in the NFL.
He did run a lot of different sets at Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin made him see a lot of different defenses in the SEC so I think he would do fine…the kid is a baller. Somebody is going to get a good one with the right coaching
If Cam fell to the #6 slot, I’d be okay with him, but my preference would be to trade back and draft Dart. The issue is that I don’t think he lasts past Pitt’s pick at #21, and maybe not Seattle’s pick at #18.. That makes a trade tricky. Or maybe LV’s #2 plus 2 #3s for something around AZ’s #16.