The obvious selection was Fernando Mendoza.<\/p>\n
Identified by the Silver & Black as a franchise-type quarterback, the Indiana Hoosiers\u2019 signal caller was destined to head to Sin City as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
From there, the notion was the team would use the rest of its draft capital to provide Mendoza and veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins<\/a> weapons to bolster the offense. But after that, it became quite clear: For the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, the secondary was a primary concern. And defensive coordinator Rob Leonard must be sporting an ear-to-ear grin.<\/p>\n Las Vegas Raiders 2026 Draft Class<\/p>\n No. 1: Fernando Mendoza, Quarterback, Indiana<\/p>\n No. 38: Treydan Stukes, Safety, Arizona<\/a><\/p>\n No. 67: Keyron Crawford, Edge, Auburn<\/p>\n No. 91: Trey Zuhn III, Center, Texas A&M<\/p>\n No. 101: Jermod McCoy, Cornerback, Tennessee<\/p>\n No. 122: Mike Washington Jr., Running Back, Arkansas<\/p>\n No. 150: Dalton Johnson, Safety, Arizona<\/p>\n No. 175: Hezekiah Masses, Cornerback, Cal<\/p>\n No. 195: Malik Benson, Wide Receiver, Oregon<\/p>\n No. 229: Brandon Cleveland, Defensive Tackle, North Carolina State<\/p>\n With 10 selections made \u2014 and quite a number of trades \u2014 general manager John Spytek and his personnel crew stocked up the roster for head coach Klint Kubiak and his coaching staff. The Mendoza and Stukes selections with the team\u2019s initial picks in the draft set the tone and the Silver & Black methodically went to work. Four of the six picks are on offense and it was good to see the Raiders invest draft resources on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at best and worst selections of the three-day affair. (Note: Las Vegas\u2019 first two picks and the second third round selection are missing from the list. It\u2019d be too easy to put Mendoza and Stukes in best in class as I think they\u2019re fine prospects and will be long-term starter types. And I had a separate piece to highlight Zuhn<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Best In Class<\/p>\n Las Vegas traded up with Buffalo to kick off the fourth round and took an excellent risk\/reward flier on Tennessee\u2019s McCoy. Sure, there\u2019s concern with the Volunteers\u2019 knee \u2014 not the ACL tear, but the bone plug used to repair cartilage and meniscus \u2014 but pick 101 is a solid spot to take a risk. At just 20 years old (21 on August 16), the Raiders can be patient with McCoy in terms of getting back to a clean bill of health and if he returns to form, the cornerback gives the team a defender comfortable in all types of coverage (excels in press man). He\u2019s sticky in coverage, aggressive and (actually) turns to find the ball, and has takeaway artist skills with explosive speed.<\/p>\n The Raiders\u2019 need for speed was only amplified just 21 picks later when the team drafted Arkansas running back Washington Jr. Both big (6-foot-1 and 233 pounds) and fast (4.33-second 40-yard dash time at the NFL Combine), this Razorback will remind many of a former Arkansas tailback the Silver & Black drafted much higher (Darren McFadden<\/a>). An ideal back for the wide zone head coach Klint Kubiak is installing, Washington<\/a> is going to be the \u201cthunder\u201d as a complementary back to workhorse Ashton Jeanty<\/a>. But with that home run speed, Washington may be equal parts \u201clightning\u201d too.<\/p>\n Lastly, a run-stuffing nose tackle didn\u2019t arrive until pick 229, but the one Las Vegas got is a 6-foot-3 and 307-pound stout anchor in Cleveland. Able to dig in and use his lower body strength with shocking upper body power, Cleveland is built take on double teams and control the gap he\u2019s assigned to. As a nose tackle, his sack numbers aren\u2019t high but Cleveland can push the pocket and get in the backfield to disrupt an offense\u2019s timing.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Needs Work<\/p>\n With Las Vegas shipping off Tyree Wilson<\/a>, the selection of Crawford in the third round went from luxury to ample opportunity. Able to translate speed to power and vice versa, the Auburn product has a very high ceiling as an edge rusher \u2014 likely a standup rush linebacker for the Raiders \u2014 and comes into the league with good bend and pursuit. But he\u2019ll need to develop counter moves, become a consistent run stuffer, and refine his tackling technique as he grows in Las Vegas. Very much in the same camp of rawness as Maxx Crosby<\/a> when the veteran arrived, Crawford does have an excellent mentor and role model in front of him. And he has the makings of a special teams maniac in Year 1.<\/p>\n Johnson, meanwhile, reunites with his Wildcat tag team partner Stukes, and brings a strong ability to rack up tackles. Unlike his Arizona teammate, though, Johnson hasn\u2019t been a consistent deep-zone defender and is best used near the line of scrimmage in the box or as short-zone read-and-react defender who can use his instincts and keep plays in front of him. The fifth-round safety does have the demeanor and physicality to be a special teams standout and that\u2019s Johnson\u2019s immediate path to a 53-man roster spot.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t Sleep On<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Masses marked the fourth defensive back taken by the Silver & Black and the Cal product arrives as an experienced special teamer who can bolster the kick and punt coverage units. Standing nearly 6-foot-1 and 179 pounds, Masses can play both press man and off-man coverages and can disrupt a passing game with pass deflections or interceptions. Pick 175 is an ample spot to take a corner that can play special teams right away while developing into an NFL cover man.<\/p>\n Like with the nose tackle spot, the Raiders didn\u2019t address wide receiver until 195 selections deep with the sixth-round nabbing of Benson. Like Masses ahead of him, Benson should compete immediately for a special teams role as a return man as the Oregon product averaged nearly 18 yards on punt returns with the Ducks. A scintillating track athlete with 4.37 speed and ability to play every wide receiver alignment, Benson gives Las Vegas another deep threat to combine with Tre Tucker<\/a>, Dont\u2019e Thornton Jr., and Shedrick Jackson<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The obvious selection was Fernando Mendoza. Identified by the Silver & Black as a franchise-type quarterback, the Indiana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[5888,1281,64,63,6115,191440,308414,103353,253289,68477,934,133460,238079,1280,211901,2623,1250,292164,16818,259070,593,10028,308413,308412,85,973,44448,40520,253168,75784,3601],"class_list":["post-637157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-arizona","tag-ashton-jeanty","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cleveland","tag-dalton-johnson","tag-darren-mcfadden","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-indiana-convention-center","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-indianapolis","tag-jermod-mccoy","tag-keyron-crawford","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-klint-kubiak","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-malik-benson","tag-maxx-crosby","tag-mike-washington-jr","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-shedrick-jackson","tag-silver-black","tag-sports","tag-tennessee","tag-the-raiders","tag-tre-tucker","tag-treydan-stukes","tag-tyree-wilson","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}