Raiders make decision on NFL Draft 1st round trade after picking Fernando Mendoza

Raiders make decision on NFL Draft 1st round trade after picking Fernando Mendoza originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

No, the Las Vegas Raiders aren't going to trade the No. 1 overall pick. They won't be doing anything in that spot aside from picking Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza.

But then the question immediately shifts to what the Raiders are going to do to support Mendoza. And that has some interesting tendrils to it.

The Raiders' next scheduled pick is No. 36, which is the fourth pick of the second round, which means Thursday night will be done for them when they pick Mendoza -- unless they trade back into the first round.

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In a new report late Wednesday, ESPN's Matt Miller revealed the chances of that happening.

"I'm told the Raiders don't anticipate a move back into Round 1 from pick No. 36 given the lack of players with a true first-round grade in this class," Miller writes. "The Raiders view any player available late in Round 1 as similarly graded to the players who will be available at 36."

That might be a common theme on Thursday night.

Often in drafts, there are a handful of teams looking to move back into the first round, and on the flip side there are usually a handful of teams that want to move down and accumulate more assets.

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