B+
Las Vegas Raiders
Mendoza is the Raiders' new face under center. Grade: B+.
by ChefPack34 ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 5 steals
· 1 reaches
Start where it matters. The Raiders took Fernando Mendoza to run the offense for the next decade, and every other decision this weekend bends around that one. Solid and sensible more than spectacular: a B+.
That Nwaiwu pick is the receipt they will wave around later. The dealing alone would carry a lesser class.
A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. If McAlister pans out, nobody remembers the price. If not, this is the pick they hear about.
Solid rather than spectacular, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Pick-by-Pick
No edge and no loss on Fernando Mendoza in the 1st overall pick; it is a wash and a sensible one. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
They did well to land Brandon Cisse in slot 42, just ahead of his grade. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
A quiet steal in Round 3, Pick 9: Josiah Trotter for less than the market said. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Skyler Bell is a better player than the 102nd pick suggests; smart patience, rewarded. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Brian Parker II at pick 117 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
The board fumbled Hezekiah Masses all the way to the Round 5 slot, and they scooped it up. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Eric McAlister in pick No. 185 is the kind of reach that only looks good if he outplays it. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Albert Regis in No. 208 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Steal is underselling it; Febechi Nwaiwu at pick 219 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.