The draft is more than two months away, but it’s not too early to start thinking about the draft and who the Raiders might be looking at with the no. 6 pick.
All eyes are on the quarterbacks at the top of this year’s draft, but Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter thinks the Raiders might lean in a different position with their first pick.
The 2024 season was the year of the running back and with his early projection on the draft, Hondo has Tom Brady and company taking the top running back prospect in the 2025 draft.
“I think they’re going to go Jeanty, the running back at Boise. Now granted, Spytek is in here, so that’s a new look. But I can tell you this, prior to the change, the Raiders were scouting him heavily,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast. “I don’t know that Tampa was scouting him as heavily, but I know Tampa was… and I think right now, if I had to pick today, I think they take Jeanty if they keep [pick] six.”
With Brady on board, the old ‘Patriot Way’ might not promote taking a running back in the first round, but there’s no question the value of the RB position has increased in the last year. With the re-emergence of Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs, and the dynamite season from second-year running back Jahmyr Gibbs, there is a case to be made for a player like Ashton Jeanty at the top of the first round.
With new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly in town, the Raiders might lean toward taking a versatile running back in the draft. The also might be more intrigued with some of the more mobile quarterbacks they can find in free agency and the draft.
Russell Wilson and Justin Fields are both entering free agency this year, and before Kelly was hired in Las Vegas, it was easy to connect dots between Wilson and the Raiders – especially considering Darrell Bevell was at one time thought to be the front-runner to be Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator in Vegas.
But with Kelly running the offense, Fields might make more sense and fellow Ohio State quarterback Will Howard is also going to land in Las Vegas in plenty of mock drafts.
It’s still early in the draft process and with John Spytek only on the job for two weeks (actually a little less), it’s hard to imagine there’s any kind of front runner for the no. 6 pick in the first week of February.
As for Howard, it will be interesting to see where he ultimately lands in the draft.
No player did more to improve their draft stock in the last two months than Howard and similar to the way J.J. McCarthy was being projected by some to be a second-round pick in January of 2024, we could see a similar rise in popularity around Howard.
x: @raidersbeat
I wouldn’t mind us picking Jeanty but if he’s available at 6, the no brainer pick has to be Abdul Carter.
Not a good move to get Jeanty at such a high draft pick, maybe trade down get him lower in the first round. Jeanty doesn’t appear to be that special a RB, he was contained fairly well by the Penn State defense during the playoff game. I think if they build a dominant OL and get a RB in the later rounds they can be just, or more effective, than by draft a RB at #6.
Taking a RB in the top 10 for a team that went 4-13 would be bad process again, IMO. As good as Josh Jacobs was for Green Bay, he didn’t look great his final year with the Raiders. Barkley wasn’t the same guy his final years in NY. None of Jacobs’ replacements in 2024 played very well in the context of the Raiders offense and roster. RB performance is just so dependent on a team’s offensive line and passing game performance.
Jeanty seems like a great back, but for a team with a bad QB situation (as of today), it would be a luxury pick given the needs at premium positions. The Brock Bowers pick worked because he was historically great as a rookie. He was also taken at 13, which is a pretty significant difference in value vs #6. If the Raiders are unable to land a QB or premium position player at 6, and trade back and take him, I’d have less of a problem with it. There just haven’t been too many unmitigated success stories with backs taken in the Top 10 over the past decade.