The Raiders should have traded that pick for Stafford

The hottest and heaviest rumor at the beginning of the NFL offseason was that the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants both wanted to trade for Matthew Stafford, but also that the Los Angeles Rams were listening and letting the quarterback negotiate contract terms with other teams. That’s not just clickbait made up for drama, it really happened. Tom Pelissero reported in February that the Rams gave Stafford permission to talk to other teams, which we all know included the Raiders and Giants.

The Raiders were reportedly prepared to give Stafford a two-year, $90 million contract extension and the Rams were allegedly willing to accept a second round pick this year and a first round pick in 2026 if Stafford wanted to leave.

It shouldn’t take longer than two games to look at the state of the Raiders and say that Las Vegas dramatically overrated their ability to draft players who make sense for their roster and pick starting quarterbacks who would help them get back to the playoffs. I’m not afraid to say it already:

The Raiders should have offered their top-10 pick this year for Matthew Stafford and the Rams would have probably accepted.

That would have been a better use of their resources than drafting a running back at 7 and then not being able to block for him, then trading a third round pick for an overpriced former Jets bust who just had one of the worst starts in recent memory for any NFL team on Monday night.

What if the Rams and Raiders agreed to a trade?

The Raiders ended up drafting Ashton Jeanty with the sixth overall pick, but he’s off to a bad start in his NFL career through two games:

• 30 rushing attempts
• 81 rushing yards
• 2.7 yards per carry
• 43.3% success rate (38th)

A lot of people have noted that the Raiders don’t seem to be blocking well and Jeanty has more yards after contact (84) than he has actual rushing yards. Well, if you can’t run block maybe don’t use a top-10 pick on a running back?

So far, Pete Carroll has given Jeanty 70% of the snaps at running back, compared to 23% for Zamir White and 9% for Dylan Laube.

If the Raiders had drafted QB, we might preach patience. But when you draft a running back in the first round, you’re expected to treat the next 5 years as if they are the prime of that player’s career. Jeanty’s first season will be a waste of his good years if the Raiders don’t find a way to make him productive. One could even argue that drafting Jeanty is a waste if he doesn’t become a top-3 running back in the entire NFL by 2026.

So between drafting a RB that you can’t block for or trading for a QB, should the Raiders have done something different?

Especially given how bad Geno Smith was this week.

Instead of trading a first round...