Jan 27, 2025; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek (left) and coach Pete Carroll at press conference at Intermountain Health Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

What Should Raiders' Draft Strategy Be?

Originally posted on Las Vegas Raiders on SI
By Carter Landis | Last updated Feb 6, 2025 9:00 AM ET

While it is still a few months away, the Las Vegas Raiders are preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft.

Head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Spytek have been hard at work trying to determine the best fits in this class.

The Raiders will be in a great position in this draft class. They have 10 picks that will be useful, as they need to build an offensive core. They have plenty of picks to establish the foundation of their future.

Since the Raiders are essentially starting from scratch, they have many choices of how they can approach the draft.

But which one should they go with?

Let’s break down a few of the ways the Raiders could build their team in April.

The first one that many fans hope the team goes with is the quarterback-or-bust method. Many in Raider Nation just want the team to find their franchise quarterback and do not care about what else the team does.

However, the Raiders may not be in a great position to land one of the top quarterbacks in the class, Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward. If they want to draft one of those two, they will likely have to trade a haul to move up.

If they do that, they won’t be able to draft more players to build out a core. So, this likely will not be the strategy the team takes.

The Raiders could go with an offensive-heavy strategy, which, looking at the current roster, would be a smart choice.

Las Vegas was one of the worst offensive teams in the NFL last season. They ranked 31st in the NFL in offensive EPA per play with -0.14. That means they were expected to add negative points every time they ran a play.

There are plenty of talented playmakers in this class, and the Raiders need skill-position players at running back and receiver. Adding more to their offense should not only make them more exciting to watch but also make them a much better team overall.

The Raiders likely will not go defense-heavy, as they need to address the offensive side of the ball.

It would make the most sense for the Raiders to try to balance things, as they must find as much talent on both sides of the ball as possible. We will see what the draft strategy is in April.

This article first appeared on Las Vegas Raiders on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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