For months, there was all sorts of speculation around whether the Las Vegas Raiders would take a quarterback in this year's NFL Draft.
They did not.
According to Raiders general manager Tom Telesco, there wasn't much consideration to draft a quarterback after Day 1.
"On the third day? No," Telesco said after the draft. "Really not the second day either. First day, yes. But not after that."
The top-six quarterbacks in this year’s draft class were all off the board by the time it was the Raiders’ turn to pick in the first round. After all the noise about Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy, over the last few months, all that speculation was quickly thrown out the window when Las Vegas was up to pick at No. 13.
From that point on, the Raiders were content with what they had in returning quarterback Aidan O'Connell and veteran Gardner Minshew II.
"Yeah, if we felt there was a quarterback out there that was better than we had, or could
potentially be better, certainly we would have done something out it," Telesco said. "But it didn't line up."
It's not exactly "shocking" the Raiders didn't go with a quarterback anywhere in the draft, as we knew that was a possibility. For the most part, though, the club did address several positions of need.
"So, what I'll do sometimes, late in the process I'll look at the board and just say first-round
wise this is kind of where the players are," Telesco said. "Because it's not like in the first round you've got every position group we have a player to take and maybe a position group that's a little bit of a weak point here, so I'll look up there and basically say, 'Hey, in the first round we're looking at these three or four positions more than likely.' How does that line up with our short-term needs and long term needs. I'll do that the first three rounds, after I really can't do that. But yeah, I'll kind of eye it up and then we'll do some different things that if we take a certain position in the first round, how will that affect second and third. But that's kind of how it rolls."
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