The Raiders are going to be in an interesting position with the no. 6 pick in this year’s draft.
The consensus top prospects in Cam Ward, Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter are almost guaranteed to be off the board when the Raiders are on the clock and the only generational prospect left at pick 6 might be Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
Running back is a position of need in Las Vegas, but with the draft so deep at running back, the Raiders could use the no. 6 pick to fill a variety of other holes on the roster and still get a starting caliber running back later in the draft.
That is going to be the difficult decision in the Raiders’ building over the next two weeks, and The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner broke down the situation very well this week.
“The tricky part about this for a team like the Raiders is whether or not they want to simply grab the best player in one of the deepest prospect groups we’ve seen in years, or play the board and walk away with a very good starter who can help immediately on day two,” Baumgardner said. “This group is deep enough that I think there’ll be players who can be real contributors in two-back combinations as late as the fifth round. We saw 20 running backs drafted last year. I think we could see 30 (maybe more) drafted in 2025, the most since 2017.”
It’s worth noting that GM John Spytek even talked about the depth at running back in this year’s draft and acknowledged that it will make the team’s decision at running back a little more interesting.
There will be good options for the Raiders at pick 6, but Jeanty feels like the home run option. His career upside is as high as any running back coming out of college since Saquon Barkley.
In his final mock draft this week, ESPN’s Mel Kiper has Jeanty going to the Raiders at no. 6 and believes Pete Carroll is going to be comfortable emphasizing the running back position early in the draft.
“Last in rushing yards per game at 79.8. Last in yards per rush at 3.6. Tied for the second-fewest runs of 10 or more yards with 34. That’s what Las Vegas produced on the ground last season,” Kiper said.
“New coach Pete Carroll is going to want much more out of his run game, and Jeanty could immediately flip the script. He displayed excellent speed, contact balance and vision en route to 2,601 rushing yards last season. He could be an elite three-down back in the NFL. Maybe add another receiver on Day 2 of the draft, and this would suddenly be a very interesting offense with Jeanty, Geno Smith, Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers.”
x: @raidersbeat