The Las Vegas Raiders didn't exactly do themselves any favors with their win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
With the victory, the Raiders dropped from second to sixth in the 2025 NFL Draft order, potentially crushing their dreams of landing Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
But could Las Vegas still manage to land its top target?
Tyler Brooke of The 33rd Team thinks so and is projecting the Raiders to swing a trade with the New England Patriots for the second overall pick in the draft. He has Las Vegas sending the sixth pick, its second and third-rounders and a 2026 second-rounder to the Patriots in exchange.
He then thinks the Raiders will use the No. 2 selection to grab Sanders.
"If the Raiders still want to take their potential franchise quarterback, they will have to give up a whole lot of draft capital," Brooke wrote. "Instead of just taking Sanders with the No. 1 pick, the Raiders will have to give up multiple premium draft picks to trade up with a team like the New England Patriots to jump ahead of other QB-needy teams. It's not an ideal situation, especially in a draft where the QB class is considered weaker than in previous years."
Las Vegas absolutely must find a way to add a quarterback this coming offseason. The Raiders have not used a first-round pick on a signal-caller since 2007, and that was when they chose JaMarcus Russell, one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
Of course, the fact that Las Vegas' draft status plummeted so far with its win over the Jaguars will make things rather complicated moving forward.
The Raiders can always hope that they move back up in the draft order over the final two weeks of the regular season, but that doesn't seem very likely.
The most probable route is Las Vegas either trading up or potentially finding a quarterback via free agency or trade, such as Sam Darnold, for example.
There is then always the possibility that the Raiders can punt to 2026 and hope to land Arch Manning, but that would be an awfully convoluted method.
