If the\u00a0Raiders\u00a0come out of the upcoming\u00a0NFL\u00a0draft with a highly touted quarterback who has made a late push up the NFL draft boards, no one will be surprised. All signs point to the Raiders adding another body\u2014preferably young and talented\u2014to a quarterback room in need of an upgrade.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But if that quarterback is South Carolina\u2019s Spencer Rattler, a former 5-star recruit who never really established himself in five college seasons with\u00a0Oklahoma and the Gamecocks, well, the reception might be a bit more lukewarm.<\/p>\n
In their seven-round mock draft projection for the Raiders this week, the\u00a0folks at The Athletic\u00a0are foreseeing the Raiders passing on taking the big names to which they\u2019ve been connected\u2014a trade up for LSU star Jayden Daniels or a reach for Washington\u2019s Michael Penix Jr.\u2014and instead targeting Rattler with a late move-up trade.<\/p>\n
According to\u00a0Bleacher Report\u2019s scouting report,\u00a0Rattler is a, \u201cSpecial arm talent. Loose, explosive throwing motion with high-end velocity and control.\u201d<\/p>\n
As The Athletic sees it, the Raiders would potentially move up to No. 70 overall in the third round, dealing away Nos. 77 and 148 (fifth-rounder), to nab Rattler from the\u00a0Giants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a joint article by Vic Tafur and Tashon Reed, all seven Raiders picks were outlined, with some major holes filled early on in the draft. The need for a starting cornerback was addressed with\u00a0Quinyon Mitchell out of Toledo\u00a0in the first round, No. 13 overall. In the second round, the Raiders were projected to beef up the offensive line with\u00a0Kingsley Suamataia out of BYU.<\/p>\n
No doubt, those are needs to fill. But most Raiders fans would be armed with torches and pitchforks if we arrive at Round 3 with no new QB in tow. Here\u2019s where Tafur and Reed go for Rattler to join incumbent starter\u00a0Aidan O\u2019Connell\u00a0and veteran\u00a0signee Gardner Minshew.<\/p>\n
Wrote Tafur: \u201cBoom. A quarterback. Everybody happy? The tape is not great, let\u2019s be honest, but Rattler does have a quick release, outperformed Penix and Bo Nix at the Senior Bowl and was solid at the NFL Scouting Combine. He would get a year to learn from Minshew and O\u2019Connell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Reed highlighted the fact that Rattler has some positives to build on. \u201cHe has special arm talent, improved his decision-making later in his college career and has starting upside in the\u00a0NFL. Rattler could join Minshew and\u00a0Aidan O\u2019Connell\u00a0in the competition to become the starter as soon as this season,\u201d Reed wrote.<\/p>\n
Still, it would be a surprise if the Raiders did not use a first- or second-round pick on a quarterback in the draft. But if they feel Rattler is an undervalued talent and can use their first two picks elsewhere, it makes some sense for the Raiders to wait.<\/p>\n
Having O\u2019Connell and Minshew on hand allows the team to play the new guy sparingly, unless he wins the job right away. It also allows the Raiders, who will be stuck with the dead cap hit of\u00a0Jimmy Garoppolo\u00a0next season, to fill the QB void cheaply.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell will carry a cap hit of just\u00a0about $1 million next season. The Raiders shelled out $12 million for Minshew, which was perhaps an overpay but could put him in a position to be the initial starter.<\/p>\n
A third-rounder like Rattler in this case would sign a four-year deal worth less than $6 million total. That means the Raiders would be paying less than $15 million for their active quarterbacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the\u00a0Raiders\u00a0come out of the upcoming\u00a0NFL\u00a0draft with a highly touted quarterback who has made a late push up the NFL draft boards, no one will be surprised…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nflnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5578,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574\/revisions\/5578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}