Analysis: NFL Draft intrigue may start with Raiders’ No. 6 pick

Brock Bowers came away dumbfounded when the Las Vegas Raiders selected him with their top pick in last year’s NFL Draft at No. 13 overall.

The tight end out of the University of Georgia had barely spoken with the silver and black throughout the draft scouting process, and didn’t consider the team one of his likely landing spots. Taking Bowers added to a decades-long trend of the Raiders surprising with unforeseen picks on draft night.

An all-new cast of decision-makers will debut for the Raiders in this year’s NFL Draft, which begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday April 24, but the pattern could continue. General manager John Spytek and coach Pete Carroll have gone to extreme lengths to stay secretive and prevent any leaks on which way they are leaning with the No. 6 overall pick.     

“I don’t really want to get into the depth of each of our position groups on the board,” Spytek cautioned early in the Raiders’ pre-draft news conference Friday at the team facility in Henderson. “People are going to start breaking that down and think we have a tell.”

The poker faces of the Raiders’ brass remained rigid, so much so that Las Vegas’ No. 6 pick might be the proverbial spot, “where the draft really begins.”

There’s been more reliable reporting on the probable direction of all the picks ahead of them. Draft nights can always provide shocks but, barring a big one or a late trade, the top four picks look more solidified than usual per both mock drafts and the betting market — quarterback Cam Ward No. 1 to the Titans, wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter No. 2 to the Browns, edge rusher Abdul Carter No. 3 to the Giants and tackle Will Campbell No. 4 to the Patriots.

Defensive tackle Mason Graham had similarly been heavily linked to the Jaguars at No. 5, but speculation has cooled in recent days with reports that running back Ashton Jeanty could be just as likely of a target.  

Jeanty has been the most mocked player to the Raiders but, unlike most of the aforementioned names, it's been almost entirely based on speculation more than any concrete evidence. Spytek made waves by saying his oldest son is demanding the Raiders draft Jeanty for fantasy football purposes but it was just a funny anecdote blown out of proportion.

Just as many, if not more, of his words have hinted that Las Vegas will look at a spot other than running back including mentioning his belief in correctly assessing positional value. On Friday, Spytek stressed that he did value running backs but only in the right scenario.   

“There are skill players that touch the ball every play and you have to value that but, if you can’t protect the quarterback or affect the quarterback, then they don't really get a chance to make plays either,” Spytek said. “So, there’s different ways to do it, which is why I think it’s so interesting.”

Jeanty has stayed the favorite to go to Las Vegas at No. 6 in the betting market, but the price has been steadily trimming to where it’s now a near pick’em. Offensive line is the big mover, as it went from as high as 10-to-1 to as low as 3-to-1 in the last two days to be the position the Raiders first select.

In addition to LSU’s Campbell, there are two other tackles considered to be potentially worthy of a top-10 pick in the draft — Missouri’s Armand Membou and Texas’ Kelvin Banks.

Las Vegas also has a hole in the defensive secondary, where Carroll’s teams have historically been the strongest. The Raiders have hosted most of the top-rated defensive backs in the draft as part of their top 30 visits with prospects including Michigan cornerback Will Johnson, Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston, Georgia safety Malaki Starks and South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori.

The only position group that they’ve more aggressively scouted outwardly is quarterback. Ward, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard and Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers have all spent time in Las Vegas over the last month.

Ward is sure to be off the board by No. 6 and conventional wisdom now indicates that no other passer has proven enough to be taken that highly. But it still appears to be a position the Raiders will address at some point in the draft.

Spytek and Carroll seem to covet a fresh face as a backup to new quarterback Geno Smith over incumbent starter Aidan O’Connell.

As tight-lipped as Spytek has tried to be, he acknowledged it was impossible to hide the Raiders’ interest at quarterback.

“That wasn't by accident, by any means,” Spytek said of all the quarterback scouting. “We remain open to the most important position in sports to get right. We’re super excited to have Geno here and we continue to expect him to be here for a while but you can’t have too many of those guys.”

Visits can ultimately be misleading, with Bowers an Exhibit A. He didn’t come to Las Vegas ahead of last year’s draft, with then general manager Tom Telesco later saying he didn’t want to telegraph the team’s interest in him.

Deception and misinformation are a part of every draft, but the Raiders seem to be particularly excelling in the categories this year.

The franchise has often blown up draft boards when no one was expecting it in the past, but a lot more eyes are on it now. There might not be a more fascinating pick early in the draft than the Raiders at No. 6.

“I don't know that we would ever say, ‘It’s all this,’ or, ‘It’s all that,’ at any time,” Carroll said.  “We want to be wide open as much as possible and make great decisions.”