{"id":154084,"date":"2025-06-24T05:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T05:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/154084\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T05:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T05:53:13","slug":"raiders-wr-donte-thornton-jr-ol-thayer-munford-pushing-for-starting-gigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/154084\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders’ WR Dont’e Thornton Jr., OL Thayer Munford Pushing For Starting Gigs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of recent late-round draft picks could work their way into the Raiders starting lineup. Tashan Reed of The Athletic predicts<\/a> that fourth-round rookie wideout Dont\u2019e Thornton Jr.<\/a>\u00a0will be a starter, and the writer recently noted that former seventh-round offensive lineman Thayer Munford<\/a> could be an option at left guard for Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Thornton had a breakout campaign during his second and final season at Tennessee, finishing with 26 receptions for 661 yards and six scores. That performance helped make him the 108th-overall pick in this year\u2019s draft, and there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019ll have an opportunity to immediately earn starting reps for his new squad.<\/p>\n

Reed notes that the receiver handled the majority of the first-team reps on the outside during OTAs, while Levi Edwards of the team\u2019s website notes<\/a> that the rookie has already become a top target of Geno Smith<\/a>. Following the departure of Davante Adams<\/a> last season, the Raiders struggled to find a third receiving option next to Jakobi Meyers<\/a> and Tre Tucker<\/a>. The new front office notably invested plenty of draft assets into the position, but interestingly, it\u2019s not their highest WR selection who\u2019s been stealing headlines.<\/p>\n

The Raiders selected TCU\u2019s Jack Bech<\/a> in the second round (58th overall), and they later used a sixth-round selection on Montana State\u2019s Tommy Mellott. The team was clearly counting on one of their draft picks to step up in 2025, and for the time being, that appears to be Thornton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Dont\u2019e is unique in terms of he\u2019s just a hair under 6-5 and he ran 4.3. There\u2019s not a lot of humans on this planet that do that,\u201d said new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly (via Edwards). \u201cAnd I think if you had a draw up an outside receiver, you would pick that type of body type, someone that\u2019s got length, someone that\u2019s got a huge catch radius, but also has speed. Sometimes you can get a big guy like that, but he can\u2019t really run, so they can stay with him. So, you add that speed element to him, his ability to sink his hips, his ability to get in and out of cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on offense, Munford has been getting some run with the first-team offense. With Alex Cappa<\/a> inking a free agent deal to play right guard, there will likely be an open competition for LG snaps. While ESPN\u2019s Ryan McFadden believes<\/a> this competition will ultimately come down to Dylan Parham<\/a> and Jordan Meredith<\/a>, it sounds like Munford is firmly in the mix.<\/p>\n

The 2022 seventh-round pick has seen an inconsistent role in three seasons in Las Vegas, starting 18 of his 46 games while primarily playing offensive tackle. When Parham didn\u2019t practice during some of the team\u2019s OTA sessions, it was Munford who spent time as the starting left guard (per Reed<\/a>). This may have simply been to get a longer look at an OL combination, but it\u2019s still notable that Munford was operating ahead of Meredith, who got eight starts for the Raiders in 2025.<\/p>\n

With a new regime running the show, Munford should have a fresh opportunity to show what he\u2019s got. Considering his versatility, the fourth-year player can at least rest easy knowing he\u2019s currently in the driver\u2019s seat for a roster spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of recent late-round draft picks could work their way into the Raiders starting lineup. Tashan Reed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[1847,7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525,7035],"class_list":{"0":"post-154084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-donte-thornton","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-las-vegas","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","12":"tag-lasvegas","13":"tag-lasvegasraiders","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-raiders","16":"tag-thayer-munford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114736791799053342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}