It happens almost every year. Months of pre-draft evaluation have established a clear top quarterback in the draft class who is projected to be drafted with the No. 1 pick. And then the trade offers come in.
This year, the QB1 is Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, who has long been considered a lock for the Raiders with the first overall selection. That has not stopped teams from reaching out to Las Vegas about trading up, general manager John Spytek revealed on Tuesday.
“We’ve gotten a few calls, and those teams know where they stand,” Spytek said (via ESPN’s Ryan McFadden), an indication that the Raiders have no intention of moving their pick.
The Bears were willing to trade in the No. 1 overall pick in 2023, which resulted in a major blockbuster with the Panthers, who drafted Bryce Young. Among the picks sent to Chicago was Carolina’s 2024 first-rounder, which turned out to be the top pick that year. Again, the Bears fielded calls from teams who wanted to move up for Caleb Williams, but they never seemed to consider another trade down as a real option. The Patriots, who were drafting third, also received interest in their pick with teams looking to draft Drake Maye. Both teams stayed put and are likely thankful they did so.
The jury is still out on Tennessee resisting overtures for the No. 1 pick last year and sticking with Cam Ward. The Giants, who were among the teams who pursued Maye, sent multiple offers to the Titans all the way up until draft day. Presumably, their haul would have been similar to the Panthers’ package in 2023.
The Raiders should be able to receive that kind of value this year, especially in a draft class with only one consensus first-round quarterback. Next year’s draft offers a deeper crop of prospects to choose from, and trading the No. 1 pick would give them the ammunition to land a quarterback from that group.
But ultimately, a trade does not make sense for the Raiders. Between their coaching change and roster upgrades, they are positioned to have a much better season than their 3-14 2025 campaign, resulting in a lower first-round pick. With multiple teams targeting quarterbacks in the 2027 draft, it may be difficult for Las Vegas to land its desired prospect. Other teams may not be willing to trade down, and even if they are, the Raiders will have to outbid other suitors. That is a much more complicated and uncertain proposition than simply drafting Mendoza this year and calling it a day.
Spytek suggested that Las Vegas is thinking along the same lines.
“If there’s a player that stands out that we feel it’s not worth losing, it’s not worth even picking up the phone, then we’ll just make the pick,” Spytek continued. “But if it’s a player that we’re not as excited about, or there’s a group of players that we would love to pick from, and we can get value for that, we’re certainly open to listening to that.”
Yeah, Washington and New England received a lot of interest in 2024 and they were never going to trade out either.
Guess it depends on how much they see in Mendoza. If they’ve soured at all and feel next year is a deeper class and Cousins is some sort of upgrade, cough, I could see it happening.
The guy’s already training with a former Kubiak co-worker that Kubiak has known since he was a child. It’s going to be Mendoza. When you need a quarterback, there’s a quarterback above a certain threshold of prospect, and you’re in position to draft him, you don’t wait.
With as bad as the Raiders are, and depending on whether they trade Crosby, we should be in position to have a top-5 pick next year.
They should be better than at least the Dolphins and Cardinals. You don’t have to be better than many teams to miss the quarterback sweepstakes. One reason you take a guy when he’s there for you to take.
Raiders acquire:
– Jalen Hurts QB
– Ty Johnson DE
– Eagles 2nd round pick (#54)
Eagles acquire:
– Maxx Crosby DE
– Raiders 1st round pick (#1)
Keep AJ Brown, Tanner McKee is not a huge downgrade from Hurts. Trade back from #1 to #3 so the Cardinals can take Mendoza; Eagles take the best OL in the draft, future RT to replace Lane Johnson.
Cardinals acquire:
– #1 overall pick (Mendoza)
– Kelee Ringo CB
– Eagles 3rd round pick (#98)
Eagles acquire:
– #3 overall pick (Mauigoa)
– Trey McBride TE
Raiders get a SB winning QB, expediting the rebuild. Cardinals get their franchise QB and the Eagles address their 3 greatest needs: DE, TE, RT. May sound far fetched, but can we put anything past Howie and the Eagles franchise? Never a dull moment with this team.
I think every team except for Arizona would say no to this. It would be terrible value for the Raiders and basically impossible for the Eagles.
Also, who’s Ty Johnson? The only Ty Johnsons I know are a running back and a receiver.
What would the Steelers offer. I have some ideas
But Oooof’s last reply above dropped the hammer on any idea of the Raiders trading the pick
Look at it this way: the Jets have the second pick and four more firsts between this year and next. The Browns have six overall and another first this year. If the Raiders were actually willing to trade down, they wouldn’t trade down to 21. But they’re also not going to trade down.
Someone’s been playing madden with trade restrictions off
Have not played a video game since 2008 or 2009. Know nothing about Madden these days, just privy to NFL rosters and team needs heading into the draft. Raiders might want to get a ready made guy in there, so could be worth exploring for the teams mentioned.
They signed Cousins to be that bridge guy, not to be caddy to another veteran. That’s leaving out the whole salary cap impossibility for the Eagles.
This time of year, I think it’s a fun take. No harm. You’re not attaching any importance or ego to it. Why not?
I used to love turning fair trades off on those games.
Vegas is not doing this.
Ou of your mind thinking hurts its worth that
For a team like Vegas, who hasn’t had a SB QB since Rich Gannon – they would at least have to consider it. Personally, I think Hurts is the reason why this offense can’t maintain any consistency or explode, with the amount of talent up front and at the skill positions. If the Eagles could get a high draft pick and/or an impact player like Maxx Crosby for Hurts, they should be entertaining it.
Hurts is not that good. Smart, tough and never turns it over, but he’d never win with the Raiders.
“Hurts is not that good”
Huh?
“but he’d never win with the Raiders”
Well at least you unintentionally just proved the point that even great quarterbacks couldn’t win with the Raiders these days
It wasn’t unintentional. His strengths don’t align with the Raiders. He’s an excellent possession QB. Makes all the good short passes, runs for 4 1st downs every game, and never turns it over. Great for Philly, but bad for a team that will struggle to win any low-scoring games.
They need a shoot-out QB.
Joe – I read that reply like the John Mellencamp song….Hurts So Good.
Come on baby, make it Hurts so good!
You could go somewhere with that, I think.
“Sometimes passing stats don’t look like they should, when it…
Hurts so good”
Number 1 pick and crosby from a rebuilding raiders team for hurts… I don’t see any world that the raiders would do that.
Wow …you’re dreaming Eagles fan….what a bargain…Hurts (winning SB QB..ha..ha) and Ty Johnson and the Eagles get Crosby and the #1….pass over what you’re smoking pal….
lol
If I’m Eric DeCosta I probably could resist winding up Spytek by making a crank call 🙂
couldn’t…doh!
“If there’s a player that stands out that we feel it’s not worth losing”
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Which makes sense. For everyone, everywhere.
But the real questions is, is Mendoza that stand-out QB?
As a Raiders fan since LaMonica, I would definitely listen to offers, but mostly only the Jets.
1-I like Mendoza, and won’t mind if we draft him. But we don’t know if Manning, Moore, and even Sayin might not be as good, or better. Mendoza is not someone that teams have been looking at for 2-3 years.
2-The Jets have a generational draft board between 2026 & 2027. They might not want to, but if anyone wanted to overpay for Mendoza, it would be the Jets. They could give us this year’s #1, #2, and next year’s #1, and still have a lot of picks.
3-I don’t think we are one QB away from winning. We’ve been doing this for 20+ years. Bite the bullet, trade Crosby & Mendoza, and prepare for 2028 and beyond. I can wait another 2-3-4 years.
I get your whole perspective, but at the same time, it’s been a really long time since they simply tried drafting a franchise quarterback. It’s been 19 years since they took a quarterback in the first round and it’s been over a decade since they even drafted one in the first two rounds. They’re in position to give it a good shot this year.
I absolutely get that. I get a little annoyed when other teams are developing QBs, and we aren’t. But the success rate of top-5 QB is not great.
My fear is that we are just as likely to miss with Mendoza as we are with any of the 2027 QBs.
I think you’re automatically more likely to miss with a 2027 QB because you have no idea who will even be in the draft, how their last year of college will look, and whether the Raiders will be in position to draft him. Sayin is unlikely to be as good a prospect next year as Mendoza is right now. Manning might not come out next year. The Raiders could fall outside the top couple picks, and even if there’s an opportunity to trade up, they’d have less ammo to trade up than the Jets do. Mendoza is a very good prospect and a pretty clean one too. You take the shot when you have it.
The usual preface of “as a [team]’s fan since [player]” and analytical drivel doesn’t help your case against drafting Mendoza first overall.
Thank heavens you aren’t near a NFL front office
analytical drivel
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The analytical drivel was:
1-They could give us this year’s #1, #2, and next year’s #1
2-But we don’t know if Manning, Moore, and even Sayin might not be as good
Do you disagree with either one of those points?
^ very poor takes above. You draft a qb as good as Mendoza when you have the chance.
There are a lot of perspectives above, and some very intriguing points made (some not, as well), but let us also remember in whatever we are considering that the Raiders went out of their way to lose two games by sitting important players-so far out of their way, in fact, that they ticked off a franchise icon so much that he was nearly traded.
Now, of course, they could have done that just to have the most valuable pick on its face, but considering that Brady and Davis were both at Mendoza’s final game, and that Mendoza has been working on Vegas’ playbook for perhaps the last two months (and with a Kubiak assistant, at that), it looks like they did it for a player instead. Spytek hasn’t run many drafts, so we don’t have a history to know if he is pulling off the smokescreen of all smokescreens, but it seems very likely that this strategy from the start has been to go all in for one specific player. While they’d have to evaluate the most ambitious offers, I doubt that Vegas gives away the object of their pursuit so close to the draft.
Water is wet
If say the Jets offer a Carolina type package for the #1 pick, I think the Raiders would have to consider it A) The Jets will probably have another top pick next year B) Next year has what appears to be a strong QB class.
That’s exactly what I’m thinking. Get better draft value going into a better draft.
The problem is that you can’t really define “better draft”. The draft gurus consistently provide blather that rarely pans out
Case in point is this year as compared to last year. Myriad draft geniuses talked about the 2026 draft class having much better QB’s who could immediately make an impact than last year. That didn’t turn out to be true.
Any fan would like to think their team’s scouts have a much better feel than the Kipers or McShays but it’s always a roll of the dice
That said, it’s hard as a fan of pro and college to see the Raiders doing better in ‘27 than what Mendoza offers. Just my two cents
Myriad draft geniuses talked about the 2026 draft class having much better QB’s who could immediately make an impact than last year. That didn’t turn out to be true.
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There is no certainty to be sure. But we also don’t know if the 2026 class isn’t better than the 2025 class. I’d rate Mendoza better than Ward, and Simpson looks similar to Dart overall.
Trade the first pick. Dig around in the trophy case and find an old Ken Stabler bloodied jersey and clone him. While you’re at it find a Matuzak and Alzado jersey to and clone them also. Would be very entertaining to watch Crosby, Alzado and Matuzak play on the same team. Welcome to the future NFL.🙃
Yeah, the Steelers did such a thing when they traded for Minkah and hoped he could be used like Polamalu. But generational types are rare and certainly don’t grow on trees. Minkah was a good DB here but he didn’t approach Troy-level play. He certainly didn’t have the supporting cast behind him, either
The Raiders would need multiple first rounders plus more to even consider moving on from Mendoza. Adding Crosby to that trade would mean AT least another first rounder. So that’s at least 4-5 first rounders.
The Jets are the only team that both has multiple first rounders AND would pick high enough to consider.
Obviously two separate trades.
In other news, water is wet.
If the 2023 Raiders didn’t listen to DaVante & Maxx and tankathoned, both who led the fire Josh McDorky campaign (which I totally understand), then played Interim Inspired football under Antonio Pierce winning some games (even beating the Chefs in KC on Xmas), they would have had a shot at Caleb, Jayden or Maye. Pierce did reveal they tried to make offers to all 3 top spots that year coveting Jayden Daniels who Antonio knew from ASU.
But Raiders got Brock Bowers & Ashton Jeanty since, and I like Mendoza as a great fit for what Klint Kubiak’s offense does. He will be a Raiiddeerrrrrr one week from now 🙂