Raiders Should Look To Trade Back In This Draft

The Oakland Raiders are one of the more desperate teams in this league for star talent, and with a mostly veteran roster filled with stopgaps, the Raiders could use a talent upgrade at just about every position on the roster. With the 5th overall pick the Raiders will have plenty of options for adding an impact talent to their roster. As tempting as that may be to land either a top QB, WR, OT, or defensive player, the Raiders best bet is to trade back in this deep talented draft class.

The Raiders this offseason stocked up on cheaper 1-2 year free agents, opting for quantity and short term fixes over quality and locking down a position for the long haul. As a result, the Raiders are a much better football team on paper than what we’ve seen in Oakland for some time. The problem is, this team is completely reliant on a group of veterans who are near the end of their career. Oakland needs to keep building for the future and to do that they will need to add extra draft picks. Currently the Raiders have 7 draft picks, with their own selections in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th rounds as well as the Cardinals and Seahawks 7th rounders. The Raiders will need more than 7 draft picks and just four of them before the 7th round if they want to add the kind of talent and depth they need to bring to this roster.

The best way for the Raiders to bring in those picks is to make a trade back or two with their 1st round pick. Any number of teams are rumored to be willing to jump into the top 10 of the first round (also some top 10 teams may want to jump some of the competition), for one of the many impact talents available. This should create a strong bidding war for top picks and could lead to the Raiders collecting a major return for the 5th pick and if they play their cards right they could make a pair of trades to move back to really stock their roster.

While this will obviously keep them from landing one of the bigger names of the draft, the Raiders should still be able to land a very talented player regardless of where they end up in the first round. In addition the extra premium picks this year (and possibly next as well), could go a long way to finally bringing the Raiders up to the level of being a contender, something that has been lost on them for the past decade.

What do you think? Should the Raiders trade back? If so how far should they move back?