Not having a good quarterback can completely derail a team. Even Bill Belichick, who is widely considered the greatest head coach ever, never won much without Tom Brady under center.
The Las Vegas Raiders appear headed in the right direction under new head coach Pete Carroll but if he can’t find a quarterback, it’s hard to see the team having any success in 2025. Las Vegas could go after a big name like Matthew Stafford in a trade or sign somebody like Russell Wilson in free agency but those are only short-term solutions.
The best way to find a franchise quarterback is through the draft. However, the Raiders likely need to trade up to land one of the top prospects. Alex Kay of Bleacher Report predicted a trade that would have the Raiders send their 2025 first-round pick (No. 6 overall), 2025 second-round pick (No. 37 overall) and 2025 fourth-round pick (No. 107 overall) to the Cleveland Browns for their No. 2 pick.
“The Raiders are an ideal candidate to trade with,” Kay wrote in a Feb. 25 column. “They have little chance of landing a top-end quarterback prospect from the No. 6 slot and could be willing to cough up several Day 2 and 3 picks to get a franchise passer.
“If Browns trade back and still come away with someone like hybrid playmaker Travis Hunter—the year’s No. 1 overall prospect, according to the B/R Scouting Department—or elite wideout Tetairoa McMillan, this could be a franchise-altering class for a team that already holds 12 picks in the upcoming draft.”
Who Would Raiders Take With No. 2 Pick?
Kay projects the Raiders to trade with the Browns but he doesn’t predict who the team could take with the No. 2 pick. It stands to reason that it would come down to Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders depending on who the Tennessee Titans select at No. 1.
Ward is considered the more physically gifted of the two but Sanders is more polished. It appears that Ward would be more likely to go at No. 1 so the most likely option would be Sanders. The former Colorado star has a relationship with Raiders minority owner Tom Brady so it could be a logical pairing.
John Spytek Talks Quarterbacks
Drafting the wrong quarterback has ruined the careers of many young general managers so there’s a lot of pressure on John Spytek to get this right. That’s why he’s going to rely on his top coaches to make sure they find a good fit.
“I mean, not to be kind of the cliche here, but any avenue where we can find a quarterback we’re going to explore,” Spytek said during his Feb. 25 press conference. “So obviously there’s free agents. We have some guys in the building that we want to give a chance to compete. And working with Coach [Pete Carroll] and with Chip [Kelly] and Oly [Greg Olson] and the whole offensive staff, we’re just going to try to find as many guys as we can to load that room up and have a great competition there.”
The Raiders do have options this offseason and it’ll be interesting to see which direction they want to go in.
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