The Las Vegas Raiders answered their most pressing offseason need when the team acquired veteran quarterback Geno Smith in a trade with the Seattle Seahawks.
While Smith will start in 2025 and could be with the team for longer than just one year with the two sides talking about a contract extension, he’s also going to be 35 years old.
As a result, we wouldn’t totally rule out the Raiders taking a quarterback at some point in the 2025 NFL Draft, although using a first-round selection on the position isn’t as likely as it once was thanks to the Smith trade.
But that trade did not deter FOX Sports’ David Helman from mocking the Raiders a quarterback with their first-round pick. In fact, he has the Raiders pulling off a huge trade up to No. 4 overall with the New England Patriots to select Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders.
“Trading for Geno Smith lessens the urgency at quarterback, but the Raiders will have some thinking to do if Sanders falls out of the top three,” Helman wrote. “The cost of a two-spot jump isn’t prohibitive. Smith turns 35 this fall. If Tom Brady, Pete Carroll and John Spytek like Sanders, it wouldn’t be a shock to see them pull the trigger on a small move up for a quarterback of the future.”
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Sanders has long been linked to the Raiders for several reasons, with a recent photo with the new Raiders signal-caller only fueling speculation that he could end up in Las Vegas.
#Raiders QB Room in 2025? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/OVqz09uVwN
— Ryan McFadden (@ryanmcfadden_) March 16, 2025
Smith would be a fantastic mentor for Sanders, and he would allow the Raiders to sit the Colorado quarterback for at least one season to give him more time to develop.
While that’s all well and good, we find it hard to believe that the Raiders will make a trade up for Sanders, whose stock has taken a hit since the combine, which could lead to him falling right into the Raiders’ lap at No. 6.
Furthermore, the urgency to add a quarterback in the draft has been lessened a bit with the acquisition of Smith, so the Raiders might not be keen on giving up the kind of capital it would take to move up to No. 4.
Ultimately, we don’t believe Sanders will be on the board past the top-three picks, which include three quarterback-needy teams in the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and New York Giants.
The popular mock draft pick for the Raiders lately has been running back Ashton Jeanty, and it makes sense with Las Vegas having a need at the position. At this point, we think it’s more likely the Raiders come away with Jeanty than Sanders.
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