The Las Vegas Raiders decided to get creative with one of their three sixth-round picks in the 2025 NFL draft. General manager John Spytek selected Tommy Mellott at No. 213 overall. Mellott was then tasked with making the switch from college quarterback to pro wide receiver.
Mellott appeared in all three Raiders preseason games, but the acclimation period was obviously massive. The former FCS quarterback recorded just two receptions for one yard. Expectedly, Mellott was waived by the Raiders during final cuts earlier this week.
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From the moment he was drafted, the realistic expectation was that Mellott would eventually be waived and re-signed to the practice squad. There, he’d be allowed to continue developing as a receiver behind the scenes. That’s not what happened, however. The Raiders bypassed an opportunity to add Mellott to the practice squad, ending the experiment before it truly began.
“We made some hard decisions,” Spytek responded to a question about not adding Mellott to the practice squad. “He [Mellott] worked really hard to try to become an NFL wide receiver after being an FCS quarterback. I don’t think people understand quite how hard that is.”
Spytek essentially admitted Mellott was not one of the Raiders’ 70 best players, after making 17 additions to the practice squad. Mellott wasn’t far ahead enough in his development for the Raiders to continue investing in this experiment. It’s fair to say Spytek wasted that sixth-round pick.
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This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders decided to end the Tommy Mellott experiment before it began