Raiders Insider Podcast: A Different Look at the Draft

In our latest Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, we have already graded and discussed the 2-23 NFL Draft, but now we look at it differently.

HENDERSON, Nev.--The 2023 NFL Draft is over, and the Las Vegas Raiders added nine players, all of whom are projected to make the 2023 roster.

That is a very big deal.

We have already given you our grades not only for the Las Vegas Raiders NFL Draft overall but additionally we gave you our individual grades.

With that said, in our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, we look from a different angle.

Matt Hladik from TheSpun.com is with us, and we take his highly respected opinions and find out his analysis of the first seven picks, and give you even more details that we have garnered since our last episode.

One of the things that fascinated me about the Raiders draft is that while some teams look for players that fit a height, or weight parameter, they didn't follow that. Many players bucked the conventional wisdom of size and height, but they all had an edge.  They practice with an edge and play with an edge.  That edge is toughness. I asked Ziegler if I was misrepresenting that.

"No, I think that's right," Ziegler said. "Philosophically, the measurables do play into some decision making, but it's not something philosophically that is really dominant for us. That's not something that was the way that I was trained, but also just what we believe in. We really just believe in the tape, and then we believe in the research on the background and the person, because I think what we're looking for is people that have a growth mindset people that have a passion and a love for football so they can improve, so they can grow, so they can work on different parts of their game. So that along with just the football tape is most important to us. I've seen so many guys of different shapes and sizes succeed in the NFL from the time that I've been in the league, that that's not so much as a focus for us as much as the tape, the attitude and their love for football. Now again, Tyree Wilson is an impressive looking dude, so like there are some elements of that too. When you can get the best of both worlds it's great, but we're not going to eliminate a specific player because of their measurables."

Make sure you check out our latest podcast below:

Round 1 No. 7 overall pick: Tyree Wilson, DE, Texas Tech

Round 2 No. 35 overall pick: Michael Mayer, TE, Notre Dame

Round 3 No. 70 overall: Byron Young, DT, Alabama

Round 3 No. 100 overall: Tre Tucker, WR, Cincinnati

Round 4 No. 104 overall: Jakorian Bennett, CB, Maryland

Round 4 No. 135 overall: Aidan O'Connell, QB, Purdue

Round 5 No. 170 overall: Christopher Smith II, S, Georgia

Round 6 No. 203 overall: Amari Burney, LB, Florida

Round 7 No. 231 overall: Nesta Jade Silvera, DT, Arizona State

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