Silver Minings: Mel Kiper Jr. gives Raiders’ draft a B

Original draft guru weighs in on the Silver and Black

Now that the 2024 NFL Draft is officially in the books, everyone is giving their takes on which teams had the best classes and handing out grades. However, some opinions carry more weight than others, and ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has been doing this for a while, so what he says or thinks often matters more than others.

Kiper was a fan of the Las Vegas Raiders’ haul this past weekend. In his post-draft column on ESPN, the draft guru gave the club a B and mentioned that he doesn’t mind that Tom Telesco and Antonio Pierce didn’t trade up for Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix. Also, he’s a big fan of the Brock Bowers pick.

So what did the Raiders do instead? They took an “offensive entity” in Brock Bowers (13), who will be a nice complement to Michael Mayer at tight end. I have him No. 7 overall in my rankings, and he’s going to make plays for whoever is taking snaps under center. You can question whether the Raiders should have targeted a cornerback instead, but Bowers is a great prospect, so I’m not going to downgrade their choice. Jackson Powers-Johnson (44) should be an immediate starter at guard. I wasn’t as high on him as a lot of other people — I didn’t think he should be a first-rounder — but this is a good spot for him.

Kiper continued to say that Telesco reached for needs with Maryland offensive tackle Delmar Glaze and Mississippi State cornerback Decameron Richardson in the third and fourth rounds. That’s probably a big reason why the Silver and Black didn’t earn an ‘A’ in Kiper’s eyes, but he did like adding Tommy Eichenberg and Dylan Laube in the later rounds.

In Other Raiders’ Links:

• Early draft grades: need more draft grades? S&BP’s Ray Aspuria went through every one of Las Vegas’ selections over the weekend and slapped a letter next to each player’s name.
• UDFA tracker: after the draft, the Raiders signed several undrafted players and have three roster spots open for training camp. Find out who signed with S&BP’s tracker.
• Raiders draft superlatives: The Athletic’s Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed shared their thoughts on the Silver and Black’s best value, most surprising and biggest question mark picks while diving into the team’s remaining needs.
• Smash mouth football: highlights from Bleacher Report’s live stream of the NFL Draft with Moe Moton’s analysis.