The Las Vegas Raiders should have drafted differently in 2025, including taking a running back after the first round.
The Las Vegas Raiders struggled to get anything going in all phases of the game this past season and it resulted in tying for the worst record in the National Football League.
The Raiders secured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft because of how weak their schedule was and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who the franchise will be selecting with that pick.
With issues at the quarterback position contributing to Las Vegas’ poor offense and an obvious replacement projected to be the first player off the board, Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza might as well start looking for a house in the area now. Knowing what the plan is for the first selection should make the rest of their draft easier, and this is an important one.
Having a strategy is imperative to a successful draft, rather than just picking best player available at any given time. At some point the team will do that, especially in the middle or late rounds, but that’s how the Raiders drafted last year and they finished with a worse record than the previous season.
Their draft strategy isn’t completely responsible for that but if we revisit their first-round pick from 2025, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty was selected to fix the running game, but he was also the best player on the board.
ESPN’s team reporters did a redraft of the first two rounds of last year’s draft and Ryan McFadden thought the Raiders should have passed on Jeanty and gone with standout offensive tackle Armand Membou, who was drafted to the New York Jets with the very next pick.
McFadden cited that while Jeanty has superstar potential, the offensive line was the team’s biggest weakness, and it created problems for the entire offense. Playing off his new first-round selection, McFadden would have kept the 37th overall pick that was traded to the Miami Dolphins and used it on North Carolina RB Omarion Hampton instead.
“The Raiders have an opportunity to take a first-round talent on Day 2,” McFadden wrote Tuesday. “Hampton's rookie season was limited to nine games due to a left ankle fracture in Week 5, but the talent is there. Before his injury, he was tied for 12th among all running backs in yards per carry (4.8).”
Hampton is a strong and quick dual-threat back that has elite balance and excels in the passing game. He is more of a downhill runner and did have some pass protection issues when he was healthy, but he has the talent to be a premier RB in this league for the foreseeable future.
If Las Vegas drafted like this in the first two rounds last year, the season may have gone a lot differently. Former Head Coach Pete Carroll may still have his job, and the team probably wouldn’t have the first pick in this year’s draft.