When the 2026 draft rolls around, the Raiders will enter their fourth consecutive draft as strong candidates to take quarterback in the first round.
They didn’t have a pick high enough to get to Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud in 2023, and despite a host of highly rated quarterbacks the 2024 draft, the Raiders weren’t able to get in position to draft one of the top quarterbacks in that draft, either.
Six quarterbacks were taken ahead of the Raiders at pick 13 in 2024 and it’s never been clear who they would have taken if one of the quarterbacks other than Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye (who never had a chance to drop to pick 13) had been available.
Lincoln Kennedy talked briefly about the 2024 draft this week and in his judgement, the quarterback the Raiders wanted last year was Michael Penix.
“A couple of years ago, there was a quarterback can’t-miss draft when six quarterbacks went in the first round. The Raiders passed up one. There’s was taken, Michael Penix, when he went to Atlanta,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast. “So they went and decided to go another route. Of course, we got Brock Bowers. Okay. But we still need a quarterback. We got to find a quarterback. [Got to find] that franchise quarterback.”
Kennedy’s comments were interesting considering former Raiders’ GM Tom Telesco talked in the offseason about who he liked in the 2024 draft.
“We did a lot of work and talked a lot about [drafting Penix], but in the end, probably not,” Telesco said on the Check the Mic podcast in June.
“Now looking back had I known I had only one year there, maybe that would have been different. I don’t know,” Telesco added with a smile.
It wasn’t much of a secret at the time, but Jayden Daniels was the one quarterback Telesco said the Raiders would have traded up to get.
“Jayden Daniels. That would have been easy,” Telesco said.
“But then when we got into J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix and Michael Penix, as far as trading up for those guys, that I was not as much into. To give up that many assets, because we were going to have to give up a lot of draft picks. We needed as many as possible to try to build up the team. So that would have been a hard move to make to trade up for one of those quarterbacks… other than Jayden Daniels that was going to be a non-starter.”
Telesco pointed to injury concerns around Penix as a concern but added that drafting Nix was in consideration.
But just a few days after the 2024 draft, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler made comments that lined up with what Kennedy said this week.
“A Raiders source said the team would have considered Penix at No. 13, more so than McCarthy or Nix, but he was long gone by then,” Fowler said in April of 2024.
Additionally, local reports in 2024 were hinting that the Raiders liked Penix, and there was a theory on the day of the draft that Telesco and owner Mark Davis weren’t on the same page in terms of which quarterback to draft.
If that was the case, maybe that’s why Telesco said the Raiders “probably” would not have taken Penix if he was available at pick 13.
x: @raidersbeat
FIRE BRENNAN CARROLL!
Boycott this $h*z show until Mark sells.
I really really thought this year we would win 7 or 8 games this team is terrible all 3 phrases Carroll has to go you can’t tell me he didn’t see the offensive line was terrible I think they should try lane kiffin again
If there’s any truth to the stated “theory” about Mark not agreeing with Telesco, then that clashes with most other reports, plus Mark’s own words, that say he stays out of all personnel decisions. Sounds to me like people trying to stir the pot.
All that said, Bowers is a truly generational, game changing talent. Not a single QB in the 2024 draft will even approach that value a few years down the road.
We are about to find the Raiders in the same position with the draft being in the possible top five pick with the Jets,Tenn, Cleveland in front of us and who’s next on our schedule Cleveland they too have a s*** show but a good D and now we have Adrian O’Connor back and he will win us a few games moving us out of the top five like you done the last couple years and looking at the draft class of QBS there’s only a couple worth taking a chance for, so what do we do, Carol and staff will probably be gone, And TB likes the kid at Notre Dame but he still a year away so what do they do what a s*** show
Speaking of last year’s draft Raiders passed on Jaxson Dart and we will see him at the end of the season we should have kept AP and drafted Dart and we would be having this conversation