With three games remaining in the season, the Raiders are in prime position to get the no. 1 pick in the 2026 draft.
If the Raiders beat the Giants in two weeks, they could drop as low as the third pick and based on the way it looks right now, the no. 3 pick is not going to be an ideal draft position for a team like the Raiders.
Appearing on the Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday, long time draft analyst Todd McShay said this is not going to be a great year to have a top 10 pick – unless you have the first pick.
“I hate to say this as we get ready to embark on the 2026 draft process, it’s not a great top 10 in terms of what we’re used to,” McShay told Eisen.
“With the elite offensive tackles and pass rushers. There’s a lot of good ones… [but] it’s a different class in that the positions of value are not the best players this year. So I’m looking at that number one overall pick and I think I have it right. It is the Giants right now… I would love to have that first pick because if it’s only Mendoza or even if it’s Mendoza and let’s say more, but not Simpson, teams are going to be clamoring to go up and get that pick ahead of the Raiders.”
As the college season has progressed, Fernando Mendoza has emerged as the nearly unanimous top quarterback in the draft, especially if Dante Moore returns to Oregon.
If the Raiders get the top pick in the draft, they can take Mendoza, but the no. 2 pick could put the Raiders in a complicated quagmire.
If multiple teams are bidding to move up to the no. 1 pick, the Raiders could be forced to pay a heavy price if they want to trade up for Mendoza. And if the Raiders don’t trade up for Mendoza, they could end up picking no. 2 in a draft that doesn’t have a clear no. 2 prospect as of now.
As McShay pointed out, the top players in the 2026 draft, aside from Mendoza, do not play premium positions and there probably won’t be the same kind of value at pick 2 as there has been in recent years.
What that means is the Raiders need to take losing seriously over the next three weeks.
Fortunately for the organization and the fans, that shouldn’t be a problem based on the first 14 weeks of the season.
Earlier in the week, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore named a few teams to watch for a potential trade to the top of the draft for Mendoza.
“The LA Rams, who we’ve talked about, they have the Atlanta Falcons’ first pick, which right now, or going into last week, it was [the] ninth [pick],” Bonsignore said on the Vegas Nation First and 10 podcast.
“It’s a high pick, plus their own pick, and Les Snead, their general manager, has never shown any aversion to trading away future first picks,” Bonsignore continued. “They’ve got to figure out what they’re going to do post Matthew Stafford, because the thing about that is, they’ve got a really good young roster outside of their quarterbacks.”
“Their oldest player, Davante Adams is getting up there in age, as well, but otherwise, it’s a fairly young roster. They need to go get a quarterback that can fill in post Matthew Stafford, and it feels like this could be the time where they make a move up. Or the New York Jets, maybe the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well. So I do think that there would be teams possibly that would be interested in that pick, and… they need to be open to that.”
x: @raidersbeat
If we get #1 I could be open to trading.
I’ll eat crap for another year if we rob someone blind & take QB next year
I said on December 16, 2026;
NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is more important than getting this draft right, especially the later rounds. Examples; Puca Nacua, 5th round pick, Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant, Max Crosby, 5th round pick… My point? It’s NOT where you draft but WHO you draft. These scouts, management and ownership CAN go a long way to righting this ship IF they get this draft right. NOT a **** thing can be done about yesterday but tomorrow is quite a different story.
I’ve been a Raiders fan since 1968 and know that the MOST IMPORTANT positions on ANY team is the offensive line. The success of ANY team is almost singularly dependent on the effectiveness of it’s offensive line. There was a time when this team had offensive linemen who were household names and this team had success because of their effectiveness.
Which is why I wanted to keep Telesco. Heck bring Mayock back. He could hit those mid rounds