ESPN’s Matt Miller Plugs in a New Name to the Raiders with the No. 6 Pick

The popular pick to the Raiders in mock drafts has been Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, but it’s rarely the case that teams take the player that everyone is talking about a month before the draft.

For all the smoke around Jeanty and the Raiders, ESPN’s Matt Miller thinks there are greater needs in Las Vegas than running back.

“Ashton Jeanty has been a popular pick here in mocks, but have you seen the Raiders’ wide receiver depth chart? Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly will want to run the ball, but they didn’t trade a third-round pick for quarterback Geno Smith to have him hand the ball off 35 times per game. The Raiders need receivers more than running backs, and new general manager John Spytek might determine that he can wait and pick from a deep running back class later,” Miller said in his last mock draft.

“Receiver isn’t as deep, so Las Vegas should grab [Tetairoa] McMillan, whose 6-4 frame and ability to win contested catches has won him fans around the league,” Miller continued. “Some point to a lack of separation ability, but McMillan has enough juice to make tacklers miss underneath. That, combined with his physicality and toughness at the catch point, would make him the Raiders’ instant WR1.”

Miller’s mock draft fits nicely with a report from The Athletic’s Vic Tafur earlier in the month.

Tafur talked about the Raiders finding a true ‘x’ receiver and said the buzz at the NFL Combine was that Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan could slide out of first 10 picks in the draft.

“I think the new regime does not really view Jakobi Meyers as the number one guy. I think that they like him, but I think they clearly want a number one guy, a guy who can make the big plays, stretch the field a little bit,” Tafur said on the Just Win podcast. “I think there are a lot of guys in the draft this year who can do that and there are some guys that are in free agency, so I think that will be a big thing they hit on is number one receiver.”

Tafur floated the idea of the Raiders getting McMillan but trading down and taking him a little later in the first round.

“If you do want to trade down and get more picks… you hear these things and you don’t know if it’s a buzz or just noise, but you hear all of a sudden Macmillan, the receiver out of Arizona, may be falling a little bit out of the top 10. If that’s the case, you may be able to trade down and get a number one receiver at 12 or 13,” Tafur said.

“I think [McMillan] is really good and he’s a guy who I think has big playability and definitely, I think he’s just scratched the surface as far as what he can do to get better so that’s a guy I’d be excited about if I could trade down and get Macmillan from Arizona and attack my number one need on offense.”

If the Raiders want to trade down, the Dallas Cowboys’ pick 12 has been a popular trade topic in recent days.

According to the most trade charts, the 6th pick would be worth at least an additional second-round pick if the Raiders move down to pick 12 or 13.

It hasn’t been talked about a lot, but it makes sense that Tom Brady and company would want to make an investment in a young wide receiver to pair with Brock Bowers for the foreseeable future.

If the Raiders can move down and add another premium pick, that might put them in position to trade back into the first round if a quarterback they like drops to the bottom of the first round… or maybe even more likely, they could get one of the highly touted running backs that will probably be on the board at the end of the first round or beginning of the second.

And for what it’s worth, FOX Sports insider Jordan Schultz had an interesting observation on McMillan earlier this month.

“Arizona WR and projected top pick Tetairoa McMillan has been invited to the NFL Draft in Green Bay, per source,” Schultz tweeted following the combine. “Here’s something interesting: McMillan posted the highest AIQ score — an advanced cognitive tool used in the pre-draft process — of any WR in this year’s class. Just another box checked for teams doing their evaluations.”

x: @raidersbeat