Raiders open to all possibilities as NFL Draft approaches

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Monday, April 22, 2024 | 12:24 p.m.

Raiders general manager Tom Telesco is ready for his first draft with the Silver and Black.

Since being hired in January, Telesco and his staff have spent months preparing for a draft that could alter the course of the franchise. And when Las Vegas is on the clock on Tuesday, Telesco knows exactly what he wants to do.

Wait — Tuesday?

That’s right. While the first round of the NFL Draft is set for prime time on Thursday night, the league is holding a “mock draft” for front-office personnel on Tuesday afternoon. Unlike media mock drafts, this practice run isn’t about gaming out where players might be selected; it’s about figuring out the logistics of communicating with other teams and actually delivering the picks to the league.

Basically, it’s a software stress test. But Telesco is taking it seriously.

Speaking Monday from Raiders headquarters during his pre-draft press conference, Telesco said one of his priorities this week will be using the Tuesday test drive to get his team on the same page.

“We’re all kind of new here together, so just make sure the process goes smoothly,” Telesco said. “We’re going to do some things tomorrow. The NFL has, like, a mock draft to make sure everything works, the technology and everything like that.”

Telesco is not stranger to the draft process. As general manager of the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers for the past 11 years, he has plenty of experience running a draft room. He knows that when you’re trying to choose between a potential franchise quarterback and a blue-chip cornerback, the last thing you need is a technological malfunction.

Telesco wants the Raiders war room to be a controlled environment.

“We’ll go through it on our own tomorrow to make sure the process is smooth, because when you’re making decisions and there’s a clock behind you ticking down, you don’t have time at that point to be explaining things,” he said. “So we’ll do a walk-through tomorrow.”

Once they’ve got the logistics down and everyone understands how the draft is going to operate, then Telesco can settle in for the actual main event. He said Tuesday is usually when draft week begins to heat up for executives, with trade talks becoming more tangible as teams finalize their draft boards.

The Raiders are in the process of untangling their own priorities for the first round. Like most teams, Telesco said he is open to moving around on Thursday night.

Las Vegas currently holds the No. 13 overall pick.

“There have been conversations with teams,” Telesco said. “We have a plan right now to go up, if we have to, and be aggressive with it. We’ve got a plan if we stick at 13, obviously. We’ve got a plan to go back if it’s within a certain range.”

The Raiders could go in a few different directions with their first-round pick, with the most obvious being quarterback. The team signed veteran Gardner Minshew to a two-year, $25 million contract in March, and second-year passer Aidan O’Connell is returning. But neither appears to be a long-term answer at the game’s most important position.

As many as six quarterbacks could go in the first round, with four expected to be off the board before the Raiders pick at No. 13. That introduces a lot of variables into the process, depending on how Telesco and head coach Antonio Pierce rate each prospect.

Cornerback stands out as another area of need, as does the offensive line. And while the positional value makes it unlikely for first-round consideration, Las Vegas lost star running back Josh Jacobs to Green Bay in free agency.

Telesco doesn’t want to get too caught up in looking at the 2024 depth chart, however. When making draft picks, he said he prefers to project four to five years into the future, noting that less than a third of draftees actually play a significant amount of snaps in their rookie campaign.

“Your needs change and they’re unpredictable,” Telesco said. “A need we may have today may not be a need in August. We may have a player in the building right now that continues to develop and grow and fills that need. We may have a position group that feels really strong today, and then we get to September, October and it’s not that strong.”

Las Vegas holds eight picks, including three in the Top 100 (No. 13, No. 44 and No. 77). Telesco said the goal is to come out of the draft with eight players he believes can contribute.

He did say the Raiders could end up making more than eight picks, or fewer, depending on how the weekend unfolds. Unlike Tuesday’s league-run mock, there’s no way to fully prepare for every eventuality.

“In the end, we’re just trying to increase our odds,” Telesco said. “The draft, we try to make it a science. It’s not. There’s still an art to it.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.