Raiders are 'open to all options' as they prioritize assembling a complete draft class

Apr 14, 2026 at 05:45 PM

Levi Edwards

Digital Team Reporter

It's easy to get caught up in the allure and grandeur of owning the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.

The Las Vegas Raiders find themselves in quite the advantageous situation of the first team on the clock. In recent memory, No. 1 picks Cam Newton, Joe Burrow and Caleb Williams have played huge roles in turning around the fortune of their franchises. The same fate could be in line for the Raiders if they make the right choice on April 23.

But it would be remiss of us to ignore the fact that the Raiders still have nine picks after their No. 1 selection.

The brutal honesty is that hitting on those picks is just as crucial – if not more.

"We're kind of analyzing all the players on the board with the same microscope," assistant general manager Brian Stark said Tuesday afternoon during a pre-draft press conference with GM John Spytek.

"All of those picks are important because you never know," Stark continued. "There's plenty of first-round picks that don't make it, and there's plenty of seventh-round, sixth-round players that do. It's all about us evaluating the character of the player first, and then evaluating the skill set and how they fit into specifically with what we're looking for and asking those positions to do."

For Spytek, quality and quantity go hand in hand. The Raiders selected 11 players in the 2025 Draft, opting to trade back on multiple occasions to acquire more draft capital. And even with the Raiders' 10 picks they have now, the GM won't turn down a chance to add more quality pieces to the roster, if the right opportunity presents itself.

"Open to all options," Spytek said, a phrase he's reiterated throughout this offseason. "I didn't think that we were going to trade down twice in the second round last year, but we felt like the trade offers that we got were just too good to pass up.

"And if someone's looking to bail and we think that there's a really high quality player we can go get, we'll certainly consider it. And if someone's offered us too much to not pick, then we'll do that too."

If Fernando Mendoza is indeed the Raiders' No. 1 pick, the rest of the draft class will certainly need to complement such a high investment. Among position groups under consideration in later rounds, offensive line and receivers were mentioned – with Spytek even delivering a firm, yet tongue-in-cheek belief that the big boys in the trenches are "sexy as hell" as viable draft options.

Nevertheless, Spytek and his staff won't marry the idea of drafting a player solely to fill a void on the roster.

"To me, with the draft, that always starts with the value of the player and the best players available," Spytek said. "I do think that the component of team need can come into play if you've got multiple players graded at the same position, and you're trying to break a tie if you've got similar grades on a player, but I think you always want to stay true to your board. ... We've got a lot of people, a lot of information and data we're gathering to build this board. So, we want to hold true to the work that's been put in."

The specifics may vary by position, but Spytek made it clear there's one non‑negotiable trait every Raiders draft pick has to bring with them.

"They've got to love football," he said. "They need to be great teammates. It's really something that is important to Klint [Kubiak] and to myself and to really all of us up here is being a great player, person, teammate to the guy next to you. Disciplined, accountable ... and a passion to play for the Raiders."

For more draft content, visit raiders.com/draft.

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