Combine extended eligibility granted during the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) coin and opportunities and it\u2019s no surprise the scouting landscape changed for many NFL teams.<\/p>\n
Add the wrinkle of the Transfer Portal into that mix and prospects are staying in college longer resulting in \u201colder\u201d draft eligible players entering the NFL Draft. What used to be a field of 20 and 21 year old\u2019s is now one that has rookies 24 or older. And the longstanding red flag of age is being flipped on its head.<\/p>\n
In accordance with that, the 32 squads are presented with choice: Adapt or get left behind.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek has no intentions of getting dusted.<\/p>\n
When asked about how he evaluates age now and how much does it detract from a player\u2019s upside during his media session at the NFL Scouting Combine earlier this past week, Spytek didn\u2019t stutter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it detracts a ton. Our analytics department gets mad at me anytime we put a guy up there that\u2019s a little bit older, that\u2019s in a sixth year and whatever, but we\u2019re just looking for good football players, and there\u2019s a million things that we evaluate as part of the process,\u201d the Raiders GM said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a little bit of a unique spot in college right now with some of the guys coming off that COVID year and getting extra years and six years and seven years, you see now too. So, we\u2019re just looking for good football players at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearing Spytek expand on how he approaches NIL showcases he\u2019s a personnel man that is adjusting to what\u2019s presented to him in the draft. And as he went on, you heard the Raiders general manager\u2019s insight on how money for college athletes is a positive thing \u2014 likely a unique perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think it\u2019s made it easier, because you know what the guys are going to do when they have money,\u201d Spytek said when asked how challenging the evaluation of a prospect\u2019s hunger for the game with NIL coin. \u201cI mean, you know the ones that love the game and are about the right things, and just because they\u2019ve got more money than we all had when we were in college, they still prepare the right way, they play the right way, they love the game, they\u2019re there for their teammates, and I think it\u2019s kind of been a little been illuminating to the character of who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are intriguing prospects that are 24 and older as we progress through the combine and head towards the draft in April. From Miami edge rusher Akheem Mesidor (25 in April), Texas Tech edge David Bailey (24), LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane (24), LSU quarterback Garret Nussmeier (24), Clemson offensive tackle Blake Miller (24) and Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor, the mature prospect list has impressive prospects.<\/p>\n
And by all appearances, Spytek won\u2019t be deterred adding an older rookie to the roster so long as they have passion for the game and are good players for a Raiders team that doesn\u2019t have enough of them.<\/p>\n
Curious to know what kind of intangibles Spytek looks for in a draft prospect?<\/p>\n
\u201cHumility, a great passion to play the game of football. It\u2019s such a hard game. Your competitive spirit has to run really high. You\u2019ve got to be willing to play through a bunch of tough circumstances,\u201d Spytek explained. \u201cAnd to me, it always goes back to the love of the game. The guys that truly love the game of football, they love to practice, they love to prepare, they love to watch film, they love to play hurt. So, I mean those things \u2014 I\u2019m kind of uncompromising on those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 class will mark the second in Spytek\u2019s tenure as the Raiders chief personnel man. And Klint Kubiak is the second head coach the GM will be building a roster with. The first-year head coach inherits the 2025 draft class Spytek selected alongside former coach Pete Carroll.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, of course. I mean, I saw them every day in practice. I saw them get better. It was good to see a lot of them play more at the end of the year and have success,\u201d Spytek began when asked for an early assessment of his 2025 draft class, \u201cI mean, Tonka (Hemingway) had a bunch of sacks the last few games. JJ (Pegues) had had a chance to play. Charles Grant got two and a half quarters. So, I\u2019m comfortable with where those guys are at.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re about the right things. They\u2019re football guys first. They\u2019re in the building training every day. I don\u2019t think Caleb Rogers has missed a day since the season ended right now. So, I\u2019m happy with those guys. They\u2019re on the right path.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this offseason, it\u2019ll be Kubiak working alongside Spytek to build a roster that puts the head coach in the best possible position to succeed. And the Raiders aren\u2019t hurting in terms of assets to use this offseason, be it cap space (projected to be at or slightly below the $90-million mark) and draft picks (10, and perhaps more in the form of compensatory selections).<\/p>\n
There are obvious roster holes that need to be filled \u2014 namely quarterback \u2014 and navigating the flush cap room and bringing in free agents smartly to drafting for need or best player available will be a challenge. And Spytek isn\u2019t shy to admit it\u2019s going to be quite the task.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s kind of the chess match of all of it, like the team building part of it. So, we\u2019re working through that right now, and we\u2019ll figure that out. But I mean, you can pass in free agency thinking you\u2019re going to get one in the draft and then leave a massive hole on your roster too. So, we\u2019ll come up with a strategy and attack it the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
With pragmatic Kubiak as his head coach, it\u2019s going to be intriguing how the two go about building the Raiders through 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Combine extended eligibility granted during the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) coin and opportunities and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2492,4242,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-783115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-draft","12":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-roster","13":"tag-lasvegas","14":"tag-lasvegasraiders","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116150592193192864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783115","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=783115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}