Do Raiders have the worst NFL Draft track record in the league? Revisiting LV’s last five first-round picks
Has any team had a worse draft record than the Las Vegas Raiders? The team routinely misses on picks and even through for no fault of their own, most of the players they take end up being busts.
Over the past few seasons, they've been historically bad. If any team is picking after Las Vegas at any point, they can rest assured knowing they'll probably end up with a better player. Here's a look at the last five first-round picks they've had and how poorly most of them went.
The Las Vegas Raiders' poor drafting revisited
5) Clelin Ferrell
Clelin Ferrell wasn't a horrendous pick, but he definitely should not have been fourth overall. The defensive end is yet to make a Pro Bowl team. Right after him, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers landed Devin White, rubbing salt in the wound. More stars were taken later in 2019, too:
- Daniel Jones (6th)
- Josh Allen (7th)
- TJ Hockenson (8th)
- Ed Oliver (9th)
- Devin Bush Jr. (10th)
- Brian Burns (16th)
- Jeffery Simmons (19th)
It was a really frustrating run for Las Vegas in 2019 as they had three first-round picks and could only nail one of them.
4) Josh Jacobs
Josh Jacobs is one of the lone hits from the Raiders' recent draft picks. He was taken 24th overall, which is a bit high for a running back, but he did turn in an unbelievable season this year. He is on the franchise tag, so the team will want to re-sign him to maximize their return on the one good pick they've made recently.
3) Henry Ruggs
The Raiders had two first-round picks in 2020 and neither of them are even in the NFL anymore. While the Henry Ruggs pick wasn't bad at the time and the Raiders could never have foreseen what he would do, this pick aged poorly. It's even worse when one considers who came after Ruggs at 12th overall:
- Tristan Wirfs (13th)
- Jerry Jeudy (15th)
- AJ Terrell (16th)
- Justin Jefferson (22nd)
- Brandon Aiyuk (25th)
- Tee Higgins (33rd)
- Michael Pittman Jr. (34th)
- D'Andre Swift (35th)
- Jonathan Taylor (41st)
- Grant Delpit (44th)
In one of the deepest wide receiver classes of all time, the Raiders chose one of the worst first-round pass catchers and the only one that is probably going to jail for a long time.
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2) Damon Arnette
Las Vegas had a pretty awful 2020 in terms of draft picks. Damon Arnette, the team's 19th overall pick, has been arrested a few times and is out of the league right now, too. Those two picks could not have gone worse for the team and as mentioned, there were a lot of excellent players still on the board at both draft spots. This is an all-time bad draft for an NFL team.
1) Alex Leatherwood
Alex Leatherwood, Las Vegas' 2021 first-round pick, is not even on the Raiders anymore, so this was clearly not a very good pick. They took him 17th overall and there were a lot of good players on the board. After Leatherwood, these players were drafted:
- Kadarius Toney (20th)
- Najee Harris (24th)
- Travis Ettienne (25th)
- Greg Newsome (26th)
- Javonte Williams (35th)
- Asante Samuel Jr. (47th)
That's just in the first two rounds, so the Raiders had plenty of talent to choose from but they once again chose wrong with Leatherwood.