The Las Vegas Raiders are having as bad of a season as you can imagine. Currently, the team sits at 2-9 and sits at No. 2 for the 2025 draft order.
One thing that’s very clear is that the Raiders need an upgrade at the quarterback position ASAP. This is the time of the year that all of the draft gurus rank their guys. If you were to look at various draft boards, you’d see three different quarterbacks ranked at the top spot. Alabama QB Jalen Milroe, Miami QB Cam Ward, and Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders. The Raiders will have at least two of those QBs listed but which one is the most realistic at this point?
Draft experts love Cam Ward as the top QB to go off of the draft board first because of his arm strength and natural ability as a passer. The advantage that Ward has over a lot of signal callers is that he’s still developing as a passer. When Ward was in high school, he played in a very run-heavy offense and rarely threw the ball. Coming into college, he was a very raw passer. To Ward’s credit, he developed rapidly from his time at FCS Incarnate Word to Washington State and now Miami. Some scouts feel like he hasn’t reached his full potential yet as a passer but when he does, he may be one of the passers in the league which is why many are willing to take a chance on him.
Goat in his back pocket
The next best QB prospect is Shedeur Sanders. He could very well be the Raiders’ future signal caller. Sanders is a very gifted passer and is well-coached. Scouts love his poise and his ability to make all the tough throws that he’ll be asked to make at the next level. But he also might have an ace in his pocket that other players don’t have. That ace is Hall of Famer quarterback Tom Brady who happens to be a part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Since 2020. Sanders has been working out with Brady and the two have formed a very close relationship and Brady has become a mentor for Shedeur Sanders. His first NIL deal was a deal with Brady’s brand TB12.
Can Shedeur Sanders make it any more obvious that he wants to be drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders? #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/freMfbIDdp
— Boop????☠️ (@LilUziBoop) October 5, 2024
Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis spoke at a team presser and said that Brady could have a role in helping the Raiders select a QB in the future. “It’s just exciting,” Davis said. “What I was going to say is we traded Davante Adams for Tom Brady….Although Tom can’t play, I think he can help us select a quarterback in the future and potentially train him as well. So it’s a huge benefit for the organization.”
There are a lot of moving parts from now until April’s draft. But if relationships matter then we could very well see Sanders wearing Silver and Black when it’s all said and done.
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Robert LaMar is a writer for Dice City Sports. You can follow him on X via @RobertLaMar26
