The Raiders are expected to be aggressive in their search for a quarterback in the offseason, and a rumor popped up on Thursday that could eventually be relevant to the Raiders’ hunt for a quarterback.
According to Fox Sports host Colin Cowherd, USC quarterback Caleb Williams does not want to play for the Chicago Bears, who own the no. 1 pick in the draft.
Historically, Cowherd can be all over the place with his takes, but he seems to be well-sourced in his reporting on Kingsbury. It was Cowherd who first linked the Raiders to Kingsbury more than two weeks ago.
Now that Kingsbury is expected to join the Raiders, a comment Cowherd made last week on Williams becomes even more relevant to Raider fans today.
According to Cowherd, Williams and his father are very close with Kingsbury and there was thinking last week that the Bears might try to hire Kingsbury to appeal to Williams.
”[The Bears] are sending a message [to Caleb Williams. Who you like, we’ll hire,” Cowherd said last week. “If it’s a bidding war, the Bears will outbid everybody to get Kingsbury… there’s a lot of stuff working behind the scenes here.”
If Williams wants to play with Kingsbury, the Raiders should instantly become a top team to watch to potentially trade up to the first pick – especially if the Bears are under the impression that Williams doesn’t want to play for them.
If the Raiders are interested in moving to the top of the draft, there’s no question that the cost is going to be significant – maybe even unprecedented.
Because Williams has a career upside as high as any college quarterback in recent memory, the Bears will want more for this year’s first pick than what they received a year ago.
So let’s take a look at the deal they accepted for the first pick last year…
The Raiders own the 13th pick in this year’s draft, and the NFL draft chart suggests they would need to add an additional third-round pick to the trade above to move from pick no. 13 to pick no. 1.
The problem for the Raiders is that the Bears can command a lot more for Williams than they did for Bryce Young. More than likely, the Raiders would have to add another first-round pick to the deal and identify a player on the roster that equates to D.J. Moore in terms of trade value.
If the Bears agree to take one additional first-round pick for this year’s no.1 pick (compared to last year’s trade), it’s possible the Raiders could get Williams for 3 first-round picks, 2 second-round picks, a third-round pick, and a solid starter.
It’s all a guessing game right now, but at the very least, the odds of Williams ending up in Las Vegas are better now than they were a day ago.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Way too much to give up for unproven NFL player. We need to watch our picks and build a team giving probably 5 draft picks is crazy. Too many other good players are out there to start filling the holes we have. It takes more then one player to WIN.
That sort of draft capital is way way too much for any NFL prospect.
I’d call it ‘Daft Capital’.
Too expensive.