The Raiders failed to address key needs in the 2026 NFL Draft, particularly at wide receiver. Despite having ten picks, they only selected a project player in the sixth round.
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Addressing every need a team has in the draft is sometimes difficult. In some cases, it's downright impossible. For the Raiders it was somewhere close to implausible. Even with ten picks at their disposal, they came out of this year's draft with some needs either unaddressed or simply with more required.
They came into the draft with a need for an X receiver. And despite having multiple opportunities in the first two days to select one of the better prospects in this draft (Denzel Boston, Ted Hurst), they went with players at other positions instead who they clearly had as a better overall prospect. They didn't address WR until the sixth round when they took Oregon's Malik Benson. But not only is he a project, he is not an X style receiver.
As of now the only player who truly fits that style of receiver is Dont'e Thornton and he showed little promise that he would be able to develop and improve on his deficiencies as a receiver and be the kind of red zone or deep threat target the team needs him to be. And even if they think he might, some competition for that role is needed.
Like receiver, the Raiders passed up a couple of the draft's top nose tackle prospects. To be fair, the best option was probably Caleb Banks and he was taken higher than previously expected, so he wasn't on the board when their pick came up at 36 overall in the second round. Kayden McDonald was there, but they apparently weren't interested in him at that spot and traded down two spots to take safety instead.
The Raiders' biggest need post-draft is at the wide receiver position, where they did not select a top prospect.
The Raiders drafted Malik Benson from Oregon as a wide receiver in the sixth round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
The Raiders opted for players at other positions, believing they had better overall prospects available than the wide receivers.
The Raiders had ten picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
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They used their final pick in the draft at 229 in the seventh round to take Brandon Cleveland. But taking a flyer on a late round guy doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that they have the answer at a position that is important in the 3-4 defense they plan to deploy.
The offensive line was a real problem last year. Left tackle's main issue was Kolton Miller was out with an injury. Right tackle had no injury excuse. The one potential excuse was poor coaching. And, yeah, it was really bad coaching. But the team writing off the issue DJ Glaze had to bad coaching and not adding some real competition for the job is risky.
GM John Spytek said prior to the draft that you can't have enough offensive linemen. And yet all the OL they added this offseason were on the interior. They signed center Tyler Linderbaum and guard Spencer Burford and their one daft pick on line was guard Trey Kuhn III. Tackle could've used some attention and got the shaft. Guess they better be right about Glaze.
This offseason they did well to upgrade the two starting spots, letting Elandon Roberts and Devin White walk and signing Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker. But after those two, the position is woefully thin. Former day three backers Cody Lindenberg and Tommy Eichenberg would seem to be the next options and that's not promising.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders biggest team needs following 2026 NFL Draft