The Las Vegas Raiders' draft was almost as much about the Kansas City Chiefs as it was about themselves. Last week, during the 2020 NFL Draft-- Jon Gruden's third draft back in charge of the Raiders and his second paired with general manager Mike Mayock -- the Raiders tripled down on wide receiver, giving themselves some much-needed firepower at the position, almost as if they know that they're stuck in the same division as the Chiefs and are forced to keep pace with the most explosive offense in all of football.
With their first pick in the first round, they took the first receiver, Henry Ruggs, off the board. Then, with picks 80 and 81, they took two more receivers in Lynn Bowden and Bryan Edwards. Considering the top receivers on the Raiders' roster heading into the draft were Tyrell Williams, Hunter Renfrow, and Nelson Agholor, it's fair to say that receiver was a clear and urgent need for the Raiders. No one was surprised when they took a receiver at No. 12. But it was surprising to see them use three of their five picks in the top 100 on one position group alone.
Ruggs, the fastest receiver in the draft, is a burner who's drawn comparisons to Ted Ginn Jr. and Mike Wallace. Bowden is a slot guy who's been compared to Randall Cobb. Edwards features good size for a receiver at 6-foot-3, even though he's a project like most third-round picks. All three players should vastly improve the Raiders' passing game as they look to keep pace with not just the Chiefs in the AFC West, but also a Broncos team that went all-in on its offense in the draft and a solid Chargers team that is being overlooked.
But it wasn't all good for the Raiders. While the Raiders successfully added plenty of talent at wide receiver, they didn't fill all of their short- and long-term needs -- an impossible task given how many holes they had. Below, you'll find a list of everything they failed to do, with the understanding that most teams, the Raiders included, didn't emerge from the draft with perfect grades.
1. Find a long-term franchise QB
And with that, we now know that the Raiders' plan at quarterback in 2020 is a combination of Derek Carr -- the incumbent -- and Marcus Mariota, who will try to do to Carr what Ryan Tannehill did to him a year ago in Tennessee. Remember when we thought they could sign Tom Brady or Jameis Winston? It turns out, the Raiders were happy with what they've already got (Carr) and what they've already added (Mariota).
While the Mariota signing was valuable in terms of the price and upside he still carries, and while Carr is coming off a productive season by his standards, neither is likely to become the Raiders' long-term franchise quarterback. Carr's been around for six NFL seasons now and he's averaging only 6.9 yards per attempt in his career, which ranks 40th in that span among quarterbacks who have started at least 10 games. Meanwhile, Mariota has never developed into the quarterback the Titans thought they were getting when they used the No. 2 overall pick on him in 2015. Since a good 2016 season, Mariota has averaged 7.4 yards per attempt while throwing for 31 touchdowns and 25 interceptions with an 86.0 passer rating. He might still have more upside than Carr if he's healthy, but health remains an ongoing issue.
I don't hate what the Raiders did by bringing in Mariota on a cheap contract to compete with Carr, but this is a team that is trying to get past the Chiefs in the AFC West. Patrick Mahomes isn't going anywhere anytime soon. So, they need to find a long-term solution at quarterback, one that is better than the Mariotas and Carrs of the NFL.
That said, it's difficult to blame the Raiders for not grabbing a quarterback in the draft. Three quarterbacks -- Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, and Justin Herbert -- were off the board before they were on the clock at No. 12. Taking Jordan Love at No. 19, before the Packers eventually traded up for him at No. 26, would've been a reach while ignoring other blatant needs, like the one they actually addressed at No. 19. They didn't have a second-round pick, which made getting Jalen Hurts impossible. The only way the Raiders could've conceivably addressed the quarterback position is if they'd made a move for Jacob Eason or Jake Fromm in the fourth round.
All of this is just a long-winded way of saying you can't blame the Raiders for not getting a quarterback. Things just didn't fall into place. Taking a quarterback with any of their picks wouldn't have been great value. But quarterback still remains a glaring need. The good news is that if Mariota and Carr play the way they've been playing for the past few seasons, the Raiders should be picking in the top half of the first round again, which will give them a shot to locate their franchise quarterback a year from now. And if Mariota or Carr suddenly make the leap, then the Raiders won't have anything to worry about at quarterback.
2. Get great value
Speaking of value, while the Raiders did well to address two major needs in the first round, there's an argument to be made that they didn't get great value with either of their two first-round picks.
Ruggs is a great prospect who just feels like a Raiders pick due to his afterburners, but he was considered by many to be the third best receiver in the draft behind both Jerry Jeudy and CeeDee Lamb, both of whom were available at No. 12 and are considered more well-rounded players. Lamb ranked eighth on Ryan Wilson's big board. Jeudy ranked ninth. Ruggs ranked 13th. That doesn't mean Ruggs isn't a good player. It just means the Raiders had different evaluations of the receivers than we did. But when looking at the way the board shook out, it certainly seems like the Raiders would've had a chance to get one of Ruggs, Jeudy, or Lamb at No. 19 if they'd addressed their 31st-ranked defense by DVOA at No. 12. Jeudy went to the Broncos at No. 15 while Lamb fell to the Cowboys at No. 17.
There's also the matter of his fit with Carr, which won't matter a year from now if the Raiders find their franchise quarterback in the 2021 draft. But in the short term, it matters.
Henry Ruggs is the fastest player and best deep threat in the draft.
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) April 24, 2020
And he's now about to play with a QB who lives to throw 5-yard check downs. pic.twitter.com/nsaUFNCCdc
A similar argument can be made that the Raiders reached for cornerback Damon Arnette at No. 19. While cornerback was the Raiders' biggest need on defense, they didn't get great value in Arnette. After watching Jeff Okudah go to the Lions at No. 3 and C.J. Henderson go to the Jaguars at No. 9, the Raiders didn't have the ability to grab either of the top two corners. The Falcons took the draft's third corner, A.J. Terrell, at No. 16. Three picks later, the Raiders grabbed Arnette, the 74th-ranked player on Wilson's big board.
The need the Raiders had at cornerback was undeniable. But this felt like a panic pick in the sense that they desperately wanted to address the cornerback position, knew they didn't have a second-round pick, and as a result, over-drafted a player who likely wouldn't have been there for them in the third round, but shouldn't have been taken that high in the first round. Arnette fills a need, but he definitely wasn't the best player available at the time. A Raiders defense that was among the league's worst a year ago could've used upgrades at nearly every position. Even taking someone like K'Lavon Chaisson, who went to the Jaguars one pick later, would've been better value, even though the Raiders addressed the pass rush a year ago.
I like the players the Raiders picked. I liked the positions they addressed. But I don't like where the Raiders took the players they took to fill the positions they needed to fill.
3. Shore up their defense enough
By using three of their five top-100 picks at receiver, the Raiders didn't do enough to fix their defense -- their biggest need. A year ago, the Raiders offense actually ranked ninth by DVOA. The problem was their defense -- only the Dolphins finished with a worse defense by DVOA. While the Raiders did well in free agency by adding linebackers Nick Kwiatkoski and Cory Littleton, interior defensive lineman Maliek Collins, and safety Damarious Randall, holes still existed. Instead, the Raiders tripled down at receiver. There was probably a way for the Raiders to fix their biggest need on both sides of the ball with more balance instead of dedicating three of their first four picks at one position. It's worth noting the Raiders did take safety Tanner Muse and cornerback Amik Robertson in the third and fourth rounds, respectively, but like most mid-round picks, expectations should be tempered.
Again, it's hard to blame the Raiders for an overall positive draft. This is a team that got outscored by 106 points last season. They had a ton of holes. They couldn't fill all of them with their seven picks. But the fact remains that holes still exist after they dedicated three of their seven picks on one area alone. That's why it feels like the Raiders are still a year away from truly competing -- one more period of free agency and one more draft, where they can find more reinforcements on defense and maybe, just maybe, a long-term solution at the quarterback position.