Raiders Insider Shares No. 1 Pick “If They Were Picking Today”

The Raiders have secured the no. 1 pick in the draft and the next three months will be spent sorting out what they plan to do with the pick.

No doubt, there will be reports in every direction, but Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter shared this week who he believes the first overall pick would be if the draft were today.

“Based upon the information that I have, and I am not definitively predicting this, but if the draft were tomorrow, and we both know it’s not, they would be taking [Fernando] Mendoza,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.

“That being said, I believe they are going to absolutely investigate a trade, as well as look at every other [quarterback], especially if a Dante Moore declares. But I think if they were picking today, it would certainly be going with Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback out of Indiana.”

Considering the Raiders don’t know who their head coach is going to be in 2026, it’s probably a safe assumption that they haven’t made a decision on the no. 1 pick, but it wouldn’t come as a surprise to learn Mendoza is Tom Brady’s no.1 quarterback in this year’s class.

If Oregon’s Dante Moore doesn’t enter the draft, Mendoza will be the consensus no. 1 quarterback in this year’s class, and it will be interesting to see what kind of trade offers the Raiders might receive for the first pick.

Those trade proposals will probably never go public, but a couple of first-round picks and a Pro Bowl caliber player in exchange for the no. 1 pick would presumably be the starting point for any trade conversations.

x: @raidersbeat