Behind the Scenes of the Raiders NFL Draft Part One

In this series of articles taking you inside the Las Vegas Raiders 2023 NFL Draft, we start at the NFL Combine, taking you through the first round.

HENDERSON, Nev.--Las Vegas Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler guided the Silver and Black through his second NFL Draft, but the first with a full quiver of picks to shape the franchise's future.

We worked the phones for weeks in preparation for the 2023 NFL Draft, which continued through that weekend, and after as I garnered information from multiple people around the NFL on what happened behind the scenes of this colossal event.

Here is part one of those nuggets of information:

· I have covered multiple NFL Drafts, but perhaps none as intriguing as this.

· My good friend Mike Griffith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and I talked weeks before the NFL Draft. I had told him what I had learned a few days before: the Raiders would not take Jalen Carter with their seventh-overall pick. 

· There were multiple reasons for that decision, and I can tell you it wasn’t just one thing. It was multiple, and eventually, the risk, especially at seventh overall, was too big.

· I reported that as well as my friend Vic Tafur.

· Once that got out, the Raiders scrambled to try to back away publicly from that decision. They tried to get the word out that he was a viable option because they wanted to trade their pick.

· Make no mistake, he wasn’t on their draft board at seventh overall, but for a team hoping someone would overpay, that was not what they wanted in the public domain.

· The Raiders ideally wanted someone to overpay for their seventh-overall slot. They wouldn’t give it away but would have loved someone to make an over-the-top offer.

· The Raiders had such a high price for the pick because they liked what they saw on their board.

· Early, well before the NFL Combine, Dave Ziegler called to find out the cost of trading up at all six spots before him.

· That is what good general managers do. While many in Raider Nation don’t recognize Ziegler as that, universally around the NFL, he is seen as one of the top young GMs in professional football.

· As the process heated up, if a player really popped as a can’t-miss and must-have guy, Ziegler wanted to be able to relay to Mark Davis and Josh McDaniels what it would cost.

· Mark Davis wasn’t hovering over his shoulder, but one of the reasons that Mark Davis has learned to trust Dave Ziegler is because he is always keeping him in the loop.

· Credit Ziegler, he is very observant, and he learned in New England that a good owner wants to be in the loop. Ziegler and Davis have a good relationship because he doesn’t treat Davis as a nuisance or an idiot; he treats him as his billionaire boss.

· While Davis is low-key, he appreciates how Ziegler and McDaniels respect his position.

· National media, when the story of the Raiders asking about the cost to move up “leaked,” it fueled the passion of Raider Nation for millions of clicks trying to make fans think the Silver and Black were desperate. Raider Nation bought what the pundits sold, but it was real.

· Stories appeared after Tom Brady retired and the Raiders were unwilling to enter the Aaron Rodgers soap opera, that the Silver and Black were desperate for a 2023 NFL Draft quarterback.

· That was never the case.

· While it wasn’t sexy, I reported coming out of the NFL Combine, and subsequently, every week after that, the Raiders had no intention of moving any higher than five, and I didn’t expect that.

· Ziegler had sold Davis on retooling the Raiders, and they weren’t one player away.

· Davis was highly impressed; I am told: “The more Mark is around Dave, the more impressed he is with his no-drama approach to building,” according to an NFL league executive.

· Ziegler liked his seventh pick and wouldn’t give it away.

· Ziegler, Champ Kelly, and McDaniels hashed out the draft board. It was spirited, but one thing this new regime believes in is no drama.

· Long hours were spent slicing and dicing, and dissecting the prospects so that the process was all but done six days before the draft.

· One Raiders employee told me: “Draft time is always busy around here, but I think the entire building saw the effort of Dave, Champ, and Josh, and it was impressive.”

· The reason for that unity is that the Raiders knew the values of what they saw in each player, so they knew what it would cost to get their pick.

· They didn’t need to huddle up, and they didn’t need to panic when the phone rang, and it did; they knew the cost, and it was high.

· 36 hours before the NFL Draft, someone in the league who had spoken to Ziegler told me: “He was calm. There isn’t any panic; Dave is confident in what they are building and how.”

· This was not a draft with a “dude” at quarterback—no franchise guy. The Raiders loved Bryce Young. He is a quintessential pocket passer, but unlike most running quarterbacks, he waits until the last second to take off. That made Young attractive, along with a myriad of other issues. Everything on Young was a plus. He was a pocket passer while at the same time a runner when he had to. Everything about him was terrific; other than the size, all was a plus, but still, he was not a dude.

· Ironically, the Raiders felt the same way about Hendon Hooker. His injury last year had him slide down their board, so in nearly half of my MOCK Drafts; I had the Raiders picking Hooker in the second round and possibly moving into the first late.

· As the process unfolded, there was some consternation around the NFL about Hooker’s injury and the timeline for healing. That is why he fell. Had that injury not happened, I know there were teams that had him and Bryce Young as equals.

· There was abundant noise from the Raiders on quarterback, and the national media bought it. The Raiders wanted that.

· National MOCK drafts would appear that had the Raiders taking a QB at seven, each time being greeted by elation inside the Raiders headquarters.

· The only question was if other NFL teams were buying it.

· Ziegler wanted as much attention on quarterback, hoping someone would overpay for their pick.

· Of the quarterbacks, the Raiders would have taken Bryce Young at seven, but nobody else.

· The Raiders were thrilled to see Jimmy Garoppolo when he showed up in Henderson. They were thrilled at his health and were convinced his injuries weren’t a pattern but a fluke.

· They quickly added an experienced Brian Hoyer as a suitable backup insurance policy and a teacher for whoever they would pick.

· McDaniels loves Hoyer and has given him a lot of credit as a mentor, and teacher to Mac Jones, who McDaniels led to a Pro Bowl in his rookie year.

· Knowing that Bryce wasn’t an option at seven, and with the securing of Garoppolo and the pre-determining the Raiders would not move up, attention turned to the team.

· Ziegler knew his defense needed help.

· The Raiders, along with the rest of the NFL, had identified two “Dudes” in the NFL Draft.

· Will Anderson and Tyree Wilson. Like Bryce Young, the Raiders knew that Anderson would not be there in any of their MOCK scenarios.

· That had them realizing they had two guys that they couldn’t imagine any scenario in which they would be there. So with two picks eliminated, they now had a desperate need to try to drive the interest in other quarterbacks (of which they were not interested at seven, and not at all with Will Levis).

· The Raiders’ top 30 visits were as much an exercise in theatre and reality.

· Story after story leaked, humorously, that the Raiders were quarterback buyers. Go back and read national pundit after national pundit who sold the narrative.

· The Raiders loved Tyree Wilson. Internally, the feeling was that he, like Anderson and Young, was a player that would never drop.

· The Raiders preferred Anderson over Wilson based on where they are today.

· Medical evaluations by the Raiders and the rest of the league had no one concerned about Wilson’s recovery from injury.

· The Raiders had hope. Wilson was their number two player in this draft behind Anderson. Young was their number one QB, which is the most important position, but still, you cannot call him a dude.

· Continuing to expand their board, the Raiders also loved Devon Witherspoon.

· I had written before the draft: “Witherspoon plays the CB position with some hot sauce. Shut-down corners don’t like contact; he loves it.”

· Feeling like Anderson and Young, they had no shot with Wilson, which was a long shot; the Raiders began putting their stock in Witherspoon.

· The Raiders felt like the best offensive lineman in the NFL Draft was Paris Johnson Jr. from Ohio State. I agree, and so did many in the NFL.

· While they had him as their fifth-best player, internally, the plan was to make a trade out of their spot had Witherspoon or Wilson not been there.

· In my asking, I was told multiple teams the Raiders would have traded the seventh pick to, but one name, the Philadelphia Eagles, I heard more than others.

· The Raiders didn’t want to spend seven on Johnson, but based on the other team’s needs, they would have been safe moving back a little farther if he fell to seven.

· They could trade back, garner more picks, and still get him.

· When the time came for the Raiders to select, an eruption of joy filled the Raiders' draft room.

· They had hoped and dreamed, but Christmas came early for the Raiders.  Wilson was there.

· Patrick Graham has been much maligned in his year in New York and even in year one in Las Vegas, but Ziegler and McDaniels believe in him.

· Graham is a good coach, but he needed weapons in 2021 (Giants) and 2022 (Raiders). Weapons he didn’t have enough of. Ziegler gave him a real weapon. An elite one, if healthy, a dude.

· Ziegler being Ziegler, didn’t celebrate after the pick was made. “A handshake and a hug, and he’s back at work,” was how I was told he reacted.

· As the picks began to unfold, there were some head-scratching picks. The usual teams made solid picks, but others, traditionally the bad drafters, followed their pattern.

· The driven and zeroed-in Ziegler noticed a pattern.

· The Raiders need a shutdown corner. Nate Hobbs had shown flashes of it in his rookie campaign but not in his sophomore under the McDaniels regime.

· They would have loved Witherspoon, but this draft was so deep at cornerback that they weren’t panicking. Joey Porter, Jr. and a tight end from Notre Dame were still out there.

· McDaniels’ offensive success had come with two Pro Bowl quarterback, but each had one thing in common, a sold attacking tight end.

· Foster Moreau was not that and was gone, and Darren Waller could have been, but he clearly wasn’t and had been shipped off to New York.

· The Raiders had signed two talented but albeit journeymen backups at tight end. Neither is the long-term answer, but both are talented.

· As the first round unfolded, Ziegler’s acute attention to the draft board that he, Kelly, and McDaniels had assembled was speaking to him.

· I had never once in my mock drafts had the Raiders taking Michael Mayer. He was their number one ranked tight end, and it wasn’t close.

· Like Bryce Young, Tyree Wilson, and Will Anderson, to a large extent, they never thought Michael Mayer would be in play for them. Not that he was rated as high as the others, but because he was very high, and they thought he would be long gone by halfway through the first round.

· The only scenario they saw him available was if they traded back, and they knew they needed defense.

· If they had traded back, and Paris Johnson wasn’t there, they would have taken Calijah Kancey, the beast of a DT from Pittsburgh. They would have made the pick if neither of them were available, and no Joey Porter.

· In fact, after the draft, one team executive told me that McDaniels at the NFL Combine loved Mayer, and he: “Didn’t hide it.”

· Mayer was a Raider. They loved everything about him. Like Rob Gronkowski, he played with an edge. He could catch passes with soft hands yet knock your block off on a rushing play.

· One team that loved Mayer said in their scouting report provided for this article, “Kid loves contact. You can keep him in every play. Scouts saw in practice that he would hold bags for OLs. He loves football. He ain’t afraid of nothing.”

· Another team described Mayer as: “Mark Bavaro toughness, Antonio Gates hands. Complete package.”

· McDaniels loved Mayer, his offense needed Mayer, but he didn’t think he would be there.

· Credit McDaniels, an offensive coach by trade. He trusts Ziegler, and his GM's actions showed why.

· As the draft unfolded, Ziegler saw those two highly rated players slipping. CB Joey Porter, Jr, and TE Michael Mayer.

· Ziegler knew the Raiders were anemic in the defensive backfield, and he knew that he needed an additional safety and corner.  Both positions he would address later.

· Standing out with two high grades were tight end Mayer and cornerback Porter.

· I broke the story via Twitter that the Raiders were on it. Ziegler started working the phones.  He wanted back in the first round.

· Ziegler knew that the disciplined Steelers wouldn’t trade up for Porter and that Porter wouldn’t get past them at pick 32.

· Ziegler furiously tried to trade back up in the first round. He could have, but again he showed the disciplined attention to detail that Davis had seen and loved.  The price was too high.  Sure he loved Porter and Mayer, but the Raiders weren't one player away, and the cost was too high, even for guys he loved.

· I was once told of Ziegler" “He isn’t cheap as a person. But he is frugal when it comes to the salary cap and building a team. Unwilling to overpay.”

· As the first-round continued to fall, Ziegler was elated to see that two of his highly valued targets, Joey Porter, Jr. and Michael Mayer, were on the board.

· He had saved picks and money when day one ended. Now the price would be something he was more than willing to pay.

· He had some diamonds that weren’t in the rough but were on sale. Ziegler and the Raiders were buyers.

· Ziegler rushed to a post-first-round press conference but left for his office soon after completion. He was happy; he knew the Raiders were better with Wilson, but after the first round is when Ziegler expected his team to shine.

· He knew that his staff ran like a finely tuned machine. He knew that after especially day one and certainly day two, the team he had assembled would earn their money.

· Someone close to Ziegler told me: “Day three is where the elite become elite, the diamonds in the rough; Dave sees himself and his staff as the team that won’t get outworked; they are diamond hunters. Don't forget Dave was a college football player.  He works like a player. He is tireless.”

· His board had been done days before. This wasn’t about the board; he was laser focused. His Raiders team needed players, and there were two of them out there that, at this point, were worth the cost. He was on a mission to get one of them. Phone calls had to be made, there was a deal to happen, and Ziegler would do it.

· Ziegler knew that Porter was going to be a Steeler. He could do nothing about it.

· The Steelers had pick 32, and no one could get it. He would try, but he knew he was going to get Mayer. Somehow, someway, he would get his best friend, not named Carissa, a tight end that he needed.  How he did, it is fascinating.

· There was blood in the waters of the NFL Draft after the first round, and Dave Ziegler circled like a shark.

This is a recap of day one. On Monday at Noon ET, we will take you through the rest of the 2023 NFL Draft.

Here is a complete list of every 2023 Raiders draft pick and links to more information about them:

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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