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Ryan McFaddenApr 13, 2026, 06:00 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Ryan McFadden covers the Las Vegas Raiders for ESPN’s NFL Nation. Prior to ESPN, McFadden was a Denver Broncos beat reporter for the Denver Post. McFadden also wrote about the Baltimore Ravens and University of Maryland athletics for The Baltimore Sun.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n HENDERSON, Nev. — The 2026 NFL draft<\/a> (8 p.m. ET on ESPN, ABC, ESPN App) will start on April 23 in Pittsburgh. The Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> are scheduled to make 10 of the draft’s 257 picks<\/a>, beginning with the No. 1 selection of the first round on Thursday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the three-day event (Rounds 2-3 on April 24 and Rounds 4-7 on April 25), we will update this page with analysis on every pick.<\/p>\n A full list of Raiders’ selections are below, in addition to positional needs.<\/p>\n NFL draft coverage: Round 1: No. 1 overall<\/p>\n Round 2: No. 36<\/p>\n Round 3: No. 67<\/p>\n Round 4: No. 102<\/p>\n Round 4: No. 117<\/p>\n Round 4: No. 134<\/p>\n Round 5: No. 175<\/p>\n Round 6: No. 185<\/p>\n Round 6: No. 208<\/p>\n Round 7: No. 219<\/p>\n Top three needs<\/a>: QB, WR, DT.<\/p>\n Get ready for the 2026 NFL draft \u2022 Mocks: Kiper<\/a> | Miller<\/a> | Reid<\/a> | Yates<\/a> The Raiders have only one quarterback on the roster, Aidan O’Connell<\/a>. But that’s expected to change after they select Fernando Mendoza<\/a> with the first overall pick. The real question is what’s next? The Raiders using their Day 2 pick on either a wide receiver or a defensive tackle makes the most sense. Las Vegas is developing a nice support system for Mendoza, with center Tyler Linderbaum<\/a>, running back Ashton Jeanty<\/a> and tight end Brock Bowers<\/a>. They have speedy receivers in Jalen Nailor<\/a> and Tre Tucker<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n We know who the Raiders will draft at No. 1. What’s the best approach with the remaining picks to help Mendoza?<\/p>\n The best approach with the remaining nine picks would be bolstering Mendoza’s support system. Even though Las Vegas took two wide receivers in last year’s draft (Dont’e Thornton Jr<\/a>. and Jack Bech<\/a>), it wouldn’t be surprising for them to grab another pass catcher, especially if Denzel Boston<\/a> (Washington) falls to pick No. 36. Reuniting Mendoza with Elijah Sarratt<\/a> (Indiana) would also be ideal, and a running back on Day 3 could be a possibility. Defensively, the Raiders need to improve their safety depth and could draft multiple players there. Taking a defensive tackle like Lee Hunter<\/a> (Texas Tech) or Christen Miller<\/a> (Georgia) in the second round is also realistic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan McFaddenApr 13, 2026, 06:00 AM ET CloseRyan McFadden covers the Las Vegas Raiders for ESPN’s NFL Nation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[7,6,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-865905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116400631441745117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865905","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=865905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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