The Las Vegas Raiders were in the market for a quarterback going into the 2024 NFL Draft, but they were unable to pull off a trade in the first round to move up for one and the board didn’t fall in their favor ahead of the 13th overall pick.
Las Vegas looked into moving up in the first round and had a plan in place if the opportunity presented itself. However, nothing materialized for the Raiders, who ended up sticking and picking tight end Brock Bowers.
The Falcons… what?
The Chiefs got richer. Wolverines littered the ranks of draft picks. And the Raiders' draft is more about what they 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 do.@ByMikeJones has winners and losers from the 2024 NFL Draft.https://t.co/lFsPTQL2eN pic.twitter.com/hRLaqSWbca
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) April 28, 2024
“We looked into (a trade up in the first round) like I said in the pre-draft press conference,” general manager Tom Telesco said. “We kind of had a plan to… maybe move up if the opportunity was there. It wasn’t there, kept moving.”
Telesco added that the Raiders didn’t try “particularly hard” to make a move, but explored it nonetheless.
As the draft went on, it was thought that Las Vegas might take a quarterback on Day 2 or 3. That never came to fruition, either, and Telesco explained why.
“If we felt there was a quarterback out there that was better than what we had or could potentially be better, certainly would’ve done something about it,” he said of not drafting a signal-caller on Day 2 or 3.
After not adding a quarterback over the weekend, the Raiders are now locked into a competition between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell. How far either is able to get the Raiders in 2024 remains to be seen.