Are the Raiders In a Shedeur Sanders or Bust Situation?

The 2025 NFL Draft is approaching as the disappointing 2024 NFL season ends. Today, we explore the narrative that the Las Vegas Raiders are in a quarterback Shedeur Sanders or bust position.

Nov 29, 2024; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders (2) before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Folsom Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

LAS VEGAS, Nev.--As I sit in the press box high in the air at Allegiant Stadium, I am watching another game come to an end in what can only be described as disappointing.

As I type this, the crowd in front of me genuinely reflects Raider Nation.

A remarkable fan base sold by their team, "Just Win, Baby," which for nearly two decades has done little of it.

There are many truthful reasons why this franchise has floundered over the decades, each Germaine. Still, none is more significant than that in a quarterback-driven league; the Raiders have had plenty of stop-gaps and even good quarterbacks, but they have not been able to get the franchise quarterbacks that set the elite teams in the NFL apart.

Period.

That simple fact is easy to identify and even write about. It is much more challenging to acquire. They aren't growing on trees.

The sentiment around the National Football League, from owners to fans, is that the Silver and Black are in a Shedeur Sanders or bust situation. The signs being held up here by Raider Nation say it.

However, as is often the life case, perception is not reality.

There is no doubt that Shedeur Sanders is tremendously talented.

If the Raiders brain trust decides they is a can't-miss prospect, then the narrative of Shedeur or bust is true.

But if they are unsure, then what?

Bad drafting is the number one reason franchises in the National Football League falter and even wallow in the Commissioner's dream of parody.

No matter where the Raiders finish in the 2025 NFL Draft order, we can be confident that their pick will again find them high on the chart.

The Raiders are back in this familiar place because, with the benefit of 20/20 vision, you can see that they have stunk in the NFL Draft.

Sure, they have made some good picks.

Las Vegas Raiders fans have made their desires known at Allegiant Stadium as the team remains in the hunt for the number one overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

But for everyone's good, many reaches, gambles, and flat-out failures were left in their wake. It isn't pretty.

Last year, Coach Antonio Pierce coveted Jayden Daniels. He wasn't the only one.

It wasn't his fault that his team won so many games during his tenure as the "Interim;" that is why he got the job. The Raiders were out of the top spots to get Daniels, and Earvin "Magic" Johnson and the Washington Commanders would not trade.

You can't reflect on the 2024 NFL Draft and blame the franchise that Daniels isn't here. 

You can applaud Tom Telesco for picking the best player available in rookie TE sensation Brock Bowers, who, in his first year, soared to the role of the best tight end in the league and seems destined to obtain a gold jacket and a bust in Canton, Ohio at the Pro Football Hall of Fame when his infant career comes to an end.

Telesco did the right thing.

But if the Raiders are unsure of Sanders, as they were of Bowers, they have to weigh the risk with reality.

In a league with a 60% failure of first-round QBs, the Raiders can't afford to swing and miss at the top of the NFL Draft again.

For a team with the motto "Just Win, Baby," success begins with the NFL Draft each year. You won't reach the playoffs or win Super Bowls if you don't excel in the NFL Draft.

Looking back at the Raiders' glory days, you see a franchise that drafted well and used free agency like a maestro in front of the finest orchestra.

When the Raiders, or any NFL team, has been great, it all starts with personnel.

If Telesco and his team determine that Shedeur, or any quarterback, is the franchise leader that this team desperately needs, the point is mute. It truly is a Shedeur, Cam Ward, or whoever fits that narrative or bust.

Like last year, if the can't-miss prospect isn't available, the Raiders should focus their first pick on a standout player—the equivalent of Brock Bowers in the 2025 class. If no player of that caliber is present, they should consider trading back to acquire more picks and continue strengthening their already talented, though young, roster.

Mark Davis, Tom Brady, and Tom Telesco must capitalize on the 2025 pick. Their margin for error is nonexistent. 

Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in professional football's history. Mark Davis has made it clear Brady will have a "huge" voice when making that decision. He should.  Brady didn’t succeed on and off the field by being risk averse, but neither did he achieve it by being foolish.

As talented and successful as Brady is, he is brilliant. Like it or not, Brady owns the pick if the first-round selection is a quarterback.  Good or bad, Raider Nation will directly hold him responsible.  He can’t allow his second prominent place of influence to fail, as did the first.

As great as Brady was and is, there is one thing he isn't: God.

Brady can't make a franchise quarterback appear if there isn't one there.

If one is available in 2025, if possible, no matter where you pick, you have to get them.

A first-round QB bust in the 2025 NFL Draft will trigger an upheaval among an already frustrated fan base, unlike anything this franchise has seen in its illustrious 65-year history.

However, a true franchise quarterback isn't available, and they select another Brock Bowers, addressing the need later in the draft or via free agency. In that case, this fan base has a significant football IQ to understand.

It is unfair to place unrealistic expectations on Sanders or any other player. It is even more unfair to communicate a message to a starved fan base that is disingenuous or incorrect at best.

The Raiders need wins. The Raiders need sustained success. The Raiders need a franchise QB. 

Now they have to find one.

If Sanders is that guy, the narrative is relevant—Shedeur or bust. If he isn't, and no other quarterback is, then the narrative is that he is the best player available.

The problem with narratives is that they get clicks and views and create buzz, but a narrative not based on reality is a fairy tale. 

Fairy tales are great at Disney World or in one of my 2-year-old son Dexter's books, but they only lead to failure in the NFL.

Narratives based on reality are franchise-changing.

The narrative shouldn't be Sanders or bust until the Raiders determine what Sanders is.

It should be a franchise quarterback or the best player in that order.

That is a narrative based on reality.

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