Raiders GM John Spytek has received praise after last week’s draft and the obvious headliner of his first draft in Las Vegas was Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
Several reports have said the Jacksonville Jaguars were preparing to take Jeanty if they weren’t able to trade up to the no. 2 pick, but Jacksonville made the trade with Cleveland, and the Raiders didn’t overthink the no. 6 pick.
In drafting Jeanty, the Raiders were able to fill one of their biggest needs on the roster with arguably the most dynamic prospect in the draft.
But the defining picks in many draft classes come in the later rounds and The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen said this week that he was particularly impressed with one of Spytek’s maneuvers on day 2 of the draft.
“Darien Porter, I think that is my favorite Raiders draft pick. Obviously, [Ashton] Jeanty has a ton of hype, but rarely do you see a 6’3 guy be able to run a 4.3 [forty],” Nguyen said on the Just Win Podcast.
“And then you look at his film and he has very limited time playing the position. He transitioned from wide receiver in 2022, didn’t get into the rotation until last year, and he played limited snaps. It’s not like he was a full-time starter, but those snaps you could see [his] recovery speed, he has really good footwork for a guy of his size, and he was rarely challenged. Guys didn’t want to throw to him because he’s a 6’3 corner, he sticky, if he got beat because of bad footwork or whatever, he was able to recover.”
“I could see why he fell to the third round because you had corners with some traits that had more experience that got picked ahead of him. But when you look at projects, I think this is a very well worth it project… I really like what I see from him.”
For those who aren’t familiar with Nguyen, he is one of the better film analysts (as his X handle would suggest) covering the Raiders and he was one of the first among his peers to say Shedeur Sanders might not be a first round pick – despite being laughed at for saying it in March.
The hope now is that Nguyen will be as accurate in his analysis on Porter as he was with Sanders.
But unlike the Sanders opinions he shared in March, Nguyen has a little more support on Porter.
In an ESPN report prior to the draft, Jeff Legwold listed Porter as one of the fastest risers entering the 2025 draft.
“Porter was a Day 3 ‘maybe’ for some teams because of his quirky resume,” Legwold wrote on April 13. “He’s 24 years old, he played six college seasons, he switched from wide receiver to defensive back in 2022, and all seven of his collegiate starts came in 2024. But he has worked his way into being a solid Day 2 selection.”
And for what it’s worth, Legwold also named TCU wide receiver Jack Bech as another of his 7 fastest risers entering the draft.
x: @raidersbeat