No one expected the Las Vegas Raiders to make the playoffs this season, but they were at least expected to make some progress in Pete Carroll’s first year at the helm.
Instead, the Raiders have gone horizontal, and at worst, they have actually taken a step backward.
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Las Vegas is just 2-8 following its Monday night loss to the Dallas Cowboys, and it’s becoming more and more obvious that its decision to trade for — and then extend — quarterback Geno Smith was a major mistake.
Smith leads the NFL with 13 interceptions this year, and with the veteran being 35 years old, it’s probably nothing but downhill from here for the two-time Pro Bowler.
To fix the problem under center, Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton is urging the Raiders to do something they have not done since 2007: use a first-round pick on a quarterback.
“Since JaMarcus Russell’s massively disappointing tenure with the then-Oakland Raiders, the team hasn’t drafted a quarterback in the first round. The franchise is long overdue for another early swing at a franchise signal-caller,” Moton wrote.
Moton then suggests that Las Vegas can trade up to No. 1 overall (assuming the Raiders don’t land the top pick) in order to secure Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza. His alternative is Las Vegas using its top draft pick on a different position and then trading back into the first round to take a signal-caller, much like the New York Giants did with Jaxson Dart last April.
No matter how the Raiders do it, it’s becoming more and more clear that they desperately need to take a quarterback on Day 1 of the NFL Draft next spring.
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Las Vegas selected running back Ashton Jeanty sixth overall this past year, a decision that has not exactly panned out for the Raiders thus far. But in their defense, the 2025 quarterback class was incredibly thin.
This time around, though, there should be at least a couple of signal-callers available for Las Vegas, and the Raiders would be remiss not to nab one of them.
For more on the Las Vegas Raiders and general NFL news, head over to Newsweek Sports.
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