In his final mock before the draft, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah sent a player to the Raiders with the no. 6 pick that has been gaining a lot of momentum in the last 24 hours.
First, long-time draft analyst Todd McShay predicted Texas O-lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. to the Raiders in his 4.0 mock draft on Wednesday morning.
Now Jeremiah is mocking him to Las Vegas, as well.
“With Jeanty unavailable, the Raiders decide to continue building at the line of scrimmage. I would assume Texas coach Steve Sarkisian gave his former boss, Pete Carroll, a strong recommendation on Banks,” Jeremiah said. “With Kolton Miller seeking a new contract, Banks gives Las Vegas insurance at left tackle. In the meantime, he could play guard if needed.”
What’s interesting about the Banks pick is that no one in more than three months of mock drafts has been predicting him to the Raiders with the no. 6 pick.
The Ashton Jeanty train to Las Vegas has slowed down tremendously, and Banks, along with Missouri offensive tackle Armand Membou, have stolen the spotlight.
Here’s what McShay said about the Banks pick earlier in the day…
“Many rate Armand Membou higher, but Raiders general manager John Spytek and part-owner Tom Brady, who is very much involved in this decision, are big on culture, and Banks is one of the highest-character players in the draft,” McShay said. “He would immediately compete for the starting job at right tackle or guard. Left tackle Kolton Miller is entering the final year of his contract, so this pick would represent a short-term upgrade with long-term flexibility built in.”
Time will tell if the new trendy pick to Vegas will come to fruition, but the information on Banks is coming from somewhere and two well-respected insiders in the industry have jumped on board with the pick at the 11th hour.
As Adam Schefter and others have pointed out, GM John Spytek and the decision makers in Las Vegas have a lot of holes to fill and the Raiders could go in a lot of different directions in this year’s draft.
Right now, Banks and Membou are the popular picks, and this time tomorrow (Thursday), we should which player the Raiders prefer… because both should be on the board when Vegas is on the clock.
And last but not least, if Spytek and Pete Carroll have an opportunity to trade down from the no. 6 pick, look for them to jump on the opportunity. The rebuild in Vegas isn’t going to happen overnight and the Raiders want to add as many potential starters as possible from this year’s draft.
A deep sleeper team to watch that it reportedly trying to make a massive move to the first half of the draft is the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter believes the Eagles are a team that might be willing to pay a heavy price to move to the top of the draft.
“It’s already been reported all over, but I’m hearing it, too, about [the Eagles] because there’s not going to be a lot of teams wanting to move up. There are more teams wanting to move down than teams that want to move up. That can make the price cheaper,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“If that’s the case, there are several players [the Eagles] like. They’re more than willing to give up picks because they don’t have a lot of holes, but two names, and I’m told there’s four, but I’ve not been able to find out who the other two are. But I’m told Philly really likes Jalon Walker and Abdul Carter. They’re not moving to one or even probably two, but they would potentially move up to get Abdul or Jalon and maybe even pay more than most teams because they don’t really need those picks. Just keep that in the back of your hat.”
x: @raidersbeat
I won’t be disappointed if they go OL with their first pick as the line needs an infusion of talent. There are plenty of quality RB for the later rounds, but not so many quality OT.