While it was no doubt nice for the Raiders to taste victory again, there is one major problem with the win that makes it totally not worth it: Las Vegas hurt its 2025 NFL Draft positioning in the process.
According to Tankathon, the Raiders fell from No. 1 to No. 6 in the order thanks to their meaningless win over one of the worst teams in the NFL. The Raiders trail the New York Giants, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Browns, from No. 1 to No. 5.
The Giants are the only team in that group with two wins, while the rest have three like the Raiders. With that in mind, it’s possible Las Vegas could jump up multiple spots over the final two weeks of the season, but getting back to No. 1 will prove difficult because the Giants are downright awful and aren’t likely to win again.
On the flip side, there are three teams with four wins behind the Raiders, so Las Vegas could move backwards, also.
Moving back obviously hurts the Raiders’ chances of landing one of the top signal-callers in next year’s draft, like Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Miami’s Cam Ward, for example.
If the draft order stays the way it is now, the Raiders could have three teams in front of them that are looking for a quarterback in the Giants, Titans and Browns. Thankfully, the Patriots and Jaguars won’t be, so it’s conceivable the Raiders can move up to No. 2 or No. 3 via trade and still get a top quarterback, but we know that’ll be very costly.
After the win, Raiders fans were less than pleased that their team is moving in the wrong direction in the draft order.
“The ramifications from this win could be insane. What if the Raiders really do want Shedeur or Ward? Now they have to give up more draft capital to move up,” one fan wrote. “This was a stupid ass, meaningless win, no matter what you think.”
“And with that, the Raiders are now outside the top-5 and have an outside chance of drafting Ward or Sanders,” another fan explained. “What a pointless win for this organization.”
“Lmao this is what the Raiders do,” another frustrated fan said. “Why did I expect this year to be any different? Win just enough to stay outta top 5 picks, fans spend all offseason talking about who to draft, draft a long snapper (first round) then do it all over again the next year. We can’t get anything right.”
While fans rightly wallowed in their disappointment about moving down in the draft order, the Raiders, including owner Mark Davis, were celebrating in the locker room like Las Vegas’ win actually meant something.
“Raiders owner Mark Davis was in the locker room clapping and talking to Daniel Carlson and AJ Cole when the locker room opened to the media,” Tashan Reed of The Athletic wrote. “Some other players were dancing. Davis was in a good mood. Doesn’t seem to care about the draft order ramifications of the win over JAX.”
Hey, the Raiders might not land a top quarterback in next year’s draft because they might be out of range, but at least they beat the Jaguars in Week 16 of a lost season.
Just in case you were wondering, yes, that is definitely sarcasm.
