Sunday the Raiders beat the Saints to win their fourth game of the season, thus pushing them down the draft order considerably. Currently they sit at No. 8 according to Tankathon.com. And in terms of getting one of the draft’s top quarterbacks, that’s just not good enough.
There is simply no way the Raiders can go ANOTHER offseason without getting a quarterback. They struck out on quarterbacks each of the past two offseasons and the results were entirely predictable.
Their best bet would be to go hard after a Vikings QB. And I mean BOTH of them and hope to land one of them.
Last offseason, the Vikings started out their offseason by signing former Jets top pick Sam Darnold as a free agent. They did so despite having the 10th overall pick in the draft, because they couldn’t afford to have all the top QB’s gone by the time they picked. And Darnold was considered a bust, having spent the previous season as a backup in San Francisco. So, the move was just considered a depth/insurance addition.
When their pick came up in the draft, Michigan QB JJ McCarthy was the top signal caller on the board, and they took him, planning on making him the day one starter.
The reigning National Championship QB would go down with injury before the start of the season, and that Darnold insurance plan needed to be cashed in after all.
Since then Darnold has had a resurgent season. Looking every bit the QB who was taken third overall six years prior and leading the Vikings to a 14-2 record, including a big division win over the rival Packers on Sunday. And there’s still the playoffs to think about, which could raise his star even more.
This has left the Vikings with a dilemma — stick with the hot hand in Darnold or turn back to the young hopeful McCarthy.
There will be several other teams who will do their best to influence the Vikings’ decision here. And the Raiders need to be one of those teams.
Let’s start with Darnold.
Even if the Vikings don’t see Darnold as their starter moving forward, it’s highly unlikely they let him simply walk for nothing. Most likely they would slap him with the franchise tag and then try to trade him to a team that will then look to sign him long term.
This is a risky move for any team as you’d be betting that Darnold could have the same success away from Kevin O’Connell despite the fact that Darnold had never had success his previous six seasons with three different clubs. But there is a reason he was chosen as high as he was in the draft. And teams will be willing to bet on him to see if he was just a late bloomer.
So, what about JJ McCarthy?
The Vikings could turn around a former top ten pick for another top ten pick should they choose to do so. In fact, it’s possible they could do it for an even higher pick than where they selected him.
Some believe McCarthy would be at very least a top two QB in this year’s draft, if not the top QB. Currently there are seven teams with a major need at the position and just two top flight options — Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward.
This means, for a team like the Raiders, who could be picking in the bottom portion of the top ten, McCarthy could be a far more attractive option. Hell, he could be their ONLY real option.
Should the Raiders pick at eight, sending that pick to Minnesota for McCarthy would be preferable to attempting to trade up to get either Sanders or Ward — a move that could potentially cost multiple first round picks.
The Raiders could even sweeten the deal by tossing in a late round pick or future mid-round pick and it would probably still be worth it.
Another benefit to getting one of these quarterbacks is the trade would happen in mid-March — a full six weeks prior to the draft. Getting that glaring need out of the way as early as possible would be a tremendous weight off of them come the draft.
No one really knows what the Vikings plan to do with these two quarterbacks. They are sitting on a gold mine either way. as many teams will be in play for either of them
It’s possible the Raiders could lose out to one of those other teams. But they need to exhaust all resources in their attempts to get one of these two QBs.