With the no. 6 pick in the draft, are the Raiders going to take Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty or will they be inclined to add a player in the trenches?
Michigan’s Mason Graham would bring a huge boost to the interior of the Raiders defensive line, and there are a couple of offensive lineman that would make sense at pick 6, as well.
But it’s been Jeanty that’s the popular pick for the Raiders in round one and the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore called Jeanty an “obvious” choice in his final mock draft of the year.
“This is an obvious pick — assuming Jeanty is still on the board. There is growing speculation that the Jaguars might take him with the fifth pick,” Bonsignore wrote in Saturday’s mock draft.
“Jeanty would be a great fit for a Raiders offense that lacks difference-makers, has averaged fewer than 20 points per game for two straight seasons and turned winnable games into losses through sheer ineptness. He will not single-handedly transform the offense, but no player in the draft packs a more impactful punch.”
This week, FOX Sports host Colin Cowherd projected Jeanty to the Raiders at no. 6 and league insider Jordan Schultz shared strong words on Jeanty’s fit in Las Vegas.
“I had a GM tell me a couple days ago that Ashton Jeanty is being slept on,” Schultz said on The Herd.
“I said ‘What do you mean? He’s going to be a top 5, top 10 pick.’ He said, ‘No, no, no. You don’t understand. This guy is a superstar. People are talking about him like he’s a good player, maybe a great player. He is a day one 1,500-yard guy.’”
Another interesting detail in Bonsignore’s mock draft was a little nugget on the quarterback situation in Las Vegas.
The consensus has been for a while that Tom Brady and company are going to invest in a rookie quarterback to groom under Geno Smith, but Bonsignore isn’t necessarily buying that narrative.
“After trading for veteran Geno Smith, the Raiders no longer feel the urgency to add a quarterback early in the draft,” Bonsignore said.
“And it wouldn’t be a shock if they didn’t address the position with any of their nine picks.”
