The Raiders’ recent draft record under Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler keeps looking worse with time, and that’s saying something for a stretch that already ended after just 22 months.
McDaniels and Ziegler arrived in Las Vegas with a massive price tag - roughly $90 million in guaranteed salary combined - but the partnership never got off the ground. McDaniels struggled to convince the locker room of his plan, and Ziegler was often reported to have deferred to him on major calls. The result was one of the shortest and most expensive coach-GM runs in team history.
The draft misses are a big part of why that era looks so bleak now. The Raiders traded first- and second-round picks in 2022 for Davante Adams, and while that move didn’t end up working out, it may still stand as the best decision they made during that stretch. What followed did not inspire much confidence.
With the No. 7 pick in 2023, Las Vegas took Tyree Wilson. After that came Notre Dame tight end Micheal Mayer, one of only three picks from those drafts still on the roster.
Mayer has a real opening now, too, with Brock Bowers expected to miss at least a game or two after knee surgery. The talent is there, but he still hasn’t put it together consistently across his three NFL seasons.
Then there’s Byron Young, the third-round pick in 2023 who has become part of the conversation for all the wrong reasons. Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers said last year he believed the Raiders may have meant to draft the other Byron Young - the one who went to the Rams in the same draft and already has a Pro Bowl on his resume.
“This is just me, I don’t know this for a fact, but I definitely believe they selected the wrong Byron Young. I think unintentionally. I think it was just attention to detail,” Myers told ESPN Radio in January of last year.
“I don’t know this, and it could just end up being a funny, but he was selected before Byron Young went to the Rams, and I remember a lot of people said ‘Wait, are you sure it’s the Alabama one that they’re taking?’”
J.B. Long also weighed in on X with a sharp jab at the mix-up, writing: “Imagine getting the call that you’ve been drafted in the NFL… only to find out the Raiders were texting the wrong agent.
Glad the @RamsNFL Byron Young was still on the board seven spots later this April. He’s been outstanding on the edge. pic.twitter.com/XyIYbzvGgm / X”
This week, Asher Mathews posted a list on X of every Raiders draft pick from 2022 and 2023, and the short version is pretty brutal: Mayer or Tre Tucker would probably be viewed as the best of the bunch.
Mayer’s new three-year extension, signed Saturday, at least shows Klint Kubiak sees him as part of the team’s future. But when you stack those drafts against what came after - including players selected behind Wilson like Bijan Robinson, Jalen Carter, Jahmyr Gibbs, Christian Gonzalez and Jaxon Smith-Njigba - the Raiders’ misses under McDaniels and Ziegler look even harder to defend.
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Brady has made it clear he intends to keep doing both, even as criticism follows the idea that one person can fully balance those demands. Around the league, there are still plenty who wonder whether that split focus could make it harder for Las Vegas to develop into a true, consistent contender. For a franchise that has spent years trying to find the right formula, the debate is becoming hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]