After finishing last season averaging 216.2 passing yards per game (16th in the NFL in 2024), the Las Vegas Raiders needed to make some serious changes to their air attack this offseason.
Las Vegas swung a trade with the Seattle Seahawks for Geno Smith to be their new starting quarterback, but the wide receiver room still needed attention. They let Terrace Marshall Jr. leave for a new deal with the Philadelphia Eagles and refused to re-sign Jeff Foreman, D.J. Turner and Ramel Keyton.
In free agency, the Raiders signed Qadir Ismail and Collin Johnson, but they needed more.
In the 2025 NFL draft, Las Vegas took TCU's Jack Bech in the second round (No. 58 overall) and Tennessee's Donte' Thronton in the fourth (No. 108). And, while both rookies are expected to fight for opportunities this offseason, the latter has caught the attention of Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby.
“The easy one, everyone always talks about Ashton [Jeanty], you talk about Jack [Bech], both of them look like ballers [and] have been awesome so far,” Crosby said on "The Rush" recently. “But Dont’e Thornton, the dude we drafted from Tennessee, the big receiver, 6-foot-4, another freak. I think he might be 6-foot-5. He reminds me of Martavius Bryant. He even looks like him. He’s tall, skinny, wears no. 10, he’s got the grilles in, he’s got the dreads. The way he runs, the way he catches the ball.
"He reminds me of Martavius and it’s crazy because a kid like that… hasn’t hit his full potential yet. Seeing him on the field and realizing what he can be is from a player perspective is like ‘Holy sh–, this guy could be something serious.'”
Thornton, 22, was a four-star recruit out of Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore, Maryland, when he committed to the University of Oregon for the 2021 season.
In two years with the Ducks, Thornton caught 26 passes for 541 yards and three touchdowns in 25 games. He transferred to Tennessee in 2023, and over the last two years, he caught 39 passes for 885 yards and seven touchdowns in 22 games.
Las Vegas' wide receiver room is pretty open at the moment with everyone other than Jakobi Meyers fighting for their spot on the depth chart. If Thornton can be the player that Crosby thinks he can be, Smith will have another weapon to help the Raiders try to dig out of the basement of the AFC West.
