The Raiders’ draft history in the early 2000s reads like a brutal alternate reality.
Las Vegas had a real chance to build something massive after the success of the Al Davis and John Madden era, but the franchise kept missing the exact players who were sitting right there on the board. Austin Abbott captured the agony with a graphic that lined up the Raiders’ picks against the stars taken immediately after them, and the contrast is painful.
In 2002, Oakland went with linebacker Napoleon Harris at No. 23.
One pick later, Baltimore landed Ed Reed, who became a Hall of Fame safety and the foundation of two Ravens championships. Harris played games, but he never changed the course of a franchise.
Two years later, the Raiders held the No. 2 pick and chose tackle Robert Gallery. Arizona grabbed Larry Fitzgerald at No.
- Gallery eventually moved inside and held up as a guard, while Fitzgerald turned into a reception machine for two decades.
That same draft also included Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger, both of whom became franchise quarterbacks elsewhere.
The 2005 miss still hits hardest for a lot of Raiders fans. Oakland took corner Fabian Washington at No. 23, and Green Bay answered with Aaron Rodgers at No.
- Washington started, but Rodgers went on to win MVPs and a Super Bowl.
Then came 2007, when the Raiders used the No. 1 pick on JaMarcus Russell. Detroit followed by taking Calvin Johnson second.
Russell lasted three seasons and became a punchline. Johnson, as Megatron, became one of the best receivers the league has ever seen.
That draft also featured Joe Thomas, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, and Darrelle Revis.
The point isn’t that one different pick guarantees a parade. It’s that Oakland swung four times in five years and kept missing the star sitting right behind the card it turned in.
That’s why the early 2000s still feel like a lost window. The Raiders went to Super Bowl XXXVII after the 2002 season.
Rich Gannon won MVP. The Tuck Rule game still lingers.
From 2000 to 2002, the Silver and Black were right there with the AFC’s best. Then the draft board turned into a nightmare.
There were bright spots, too. Charles Woodson in 1998 and Nnamdi Asomugha in 2003 showed the franchise could identify defensive backs. But those hits never erased the larger pattern of near-misses.
The team is operating in a different draft world now. Las Vegas used the 2026 No. 1 pick on Fernando Mendoza, the first Raiders first-round quarterback since Russell.
Tom Brady was in the evaluation room this time. That’s the contrast Abbott’s graphic was really screaming about.
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But the choice still comes with an obvious catch for Las Vegas, because the biggest question around the offense may not be who is taking the snaps so much as who is keeping the pocket intact. If the offensive line continues to be an issue, the case for Mendoza as the longer-term answer only gets stronger, and the Raiders could find themselves weighing present-day stability against a future built on better protection. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Offense Suddenly Has One Touches Question Fans Can't Ignore
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What makes it interesting is how tightly all of those roles may connect once the season starts. If Cousins is throwing at a steady clip, Bowers and the receivers can feed off that volume, while Jeantys workload could determine how balanced or pass-heavy the offense becomes from week to week. For bettors looking at individual markets, that creates a familiar Raiders question with a new cast: which player is actually set up to get the touches that matter most, and which one is going to be left waiting for opportunity? [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Offensive Staff Overhaul Says Everything About Last Seasons Problems
The Raiders changes on offense say plenty about how the organization felt about last seasons problems, especially up front. Las Vegas struggled with its offensive line in 2025, and internal sources described the coaching there as among the worst they had seen, a stinging assessment that helps explain why the team moved quickly to reset that side of the ball.
Rick Dennison arrives as the new offensive line coach for 2026, with the expectation that he can bring cleaner fundamentals and better technique to a unit that badly needed both. The overhaul did not stop there, either, as the Raiders also upgraded at quarterbacks coach by hiring Mike Sullivan, whose long NFL background and prior working relationship with offensive coordinator Kubiak should give the staff more continuity as it tries to stabilize the offense. [Read more 🡒]