Thursday, April 16, 2026 | 2 a.m.<\/p>\n
The Las Vegas Raiders were the most active team in the NFL during free agency in March, adding nearly $300 million to their personnel payroll with several high-profile signings, but that was all secondary to their top offseason focus.<\/p>\n
The 2026 NFL Draft, which runs April 23-25 in Pittsburgh, looms as one of the biggest in the history of the franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the draft way more than I like free agency,\u201d general manager John Spytek recently told Raiders.com at the NFL\u2019s Annual League Meeting in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
That must be especially true this year with the Raiders slotted to pick No. 1 overall while holding nine more selections through the seven total rounds. It\u2019s a virtual guarantee they select Heisman Trophy- and national championship-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza out of Indiana with the top overall pick, but there\u2019s a lot of work to be done after that.<\/p>\n
Despite the free agent spending spree, Las Vegas still has several roster holes it needs to patch up beyond quarterback, starting with the No. 36 overall pick in the second round and No. 67 pick in the third round.<\/p>\n
Here are the four positions the Raiders need to address\u2014it\u2019s highly likely the pair of players they take with their other two highest picks come from one of these categories, so here are some of the bigger names they could target.<\/p>\n
Defensive tackle<\/p>\n
Las Vegas is set on the edge of the defensive line after signing former Indianapolis Colt Kwity Paye, resigning veteran Malcolm Koonce and, most importantly, retaining superstar Maxx Crosby following a voided trade to Baltimore. But it should require a more prototypical space-eating, physical presence in the middle of the new 3-4 base defense that new coordinator Rob Leonard plans to install.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Potential Day 2 targets:\u00a0Ohio State\u2019s Kayden McDonald, Texas Tech\u2019s Lee Hunter.<\/p>\n
Offensive lineman<\/p>\n
The Raiders have a first-rate center, newly signed Tyler Linderbaum, and left tackle, franchise cornerstone Kolton Miller. They also have a promising guard in third-year player Jackson Powers-Johnson, whom they could play on either side of the line. But it would be ideal if they could land one more tackle and one more guard to provide competition for an unproven set of other returners.<\/p>\n
Potential Day 2 targets: Oregon guard Emmanuel Pregnon, Arizona State tackle Max Iheanachor.<\/p>\n
Wide receiver<\/p>\n
Las Vegas has a glaring hole at No. 1 receiver, though it\u2019s not as much of an issue as it may appear, considering tight end Brock Bowers is guaranteed to be the focal point of the passing game. Still, the Raiders need someone with gamebreaking upside to complement the current core of Jack Bech, Jalen Nailor and Tre Tucker.<\/p>\n
Potential Day 2 targets: Indiana\u2019s Elijah Sarratt, Alabama\u2019s Germie Bernard.<\/p>\n
Defensive back<\/p>\n
Free safety looks like the biggest need with last year\u2019s stagnation in the development of mainstay Isaiah Pola-Mao, but another strong safety is also possible given the option of using trusty veteran Jeremy Chinn more like a linebacker. The cornerback room is also thin beyond 2025 breakout signing Eric Stokes, especially if second-year player Darien Porter fails to take a leap forward.<\/p>\n
Potential Day 2 targets: LSU safety A.J. Haulcy, South Carolina cornerback Brandon Cisse.<\/p>\n
This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday, April 16, 2026 | 2 a.m. The Las Vegas Raiders were the most active team in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-867599","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-lasvegas","12":"tag-lasvegasraiders","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116413660670628253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867599","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=867599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}