Spytek prepared, confident as Raiders ready for draft

Raiders general manager John Spytek (left) and assistant GM Brian Stark at Tuesday's pre-draft news conference at the team's headquarters in Henderson, Nev.

(Steve Carp-The Sporting Tribune)

HENDERSON, Nev. — For someone who has a lot of pressure on his shoulders, John Spytek looked extremely relaxed Tuesday.

The Las Vegas Raiders’ general manager essentially controls the upcoming NFL Draft next week in Pittsburgh. The Raiders own the No. 1 overall pick and for them not to select Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, it’s going to take one hell of an offer for Spytek to trade the pick.

He was asked the question a couple of different times and different ways Tuesday as he and assistant GM Brian Stark discussed the unique situation the team finds itself in, a situation that Spytek said he hopes never to be in again after next Thursday. Would he trade the No. 1 pick?

"We've gotten a few calls, and those teams know where they stand right now,” Spytek said.

By controlling the Draft, the Raiders, who currently have 10 picks over the seven rounds, can zero in on what they want to do and be in a position to do it, unlike the other 31 NFL teams that might be trying to move up. For Spytek, it’s a different dynamic than normal.
"Well, a lot less energy spent on hypotheticals,” he said. “And we were just talking before we came down here — there's only one team that can get the exact person that they want, and we have that option to us available this year if we so choose.

“So, outside of that, it's not much different. I mean, we used to spend, 'Would we do this if these guys were there? Would we trade down? Would we ask for the premium?' We only have to do that one time this year with the first-round pick, and then you get to the second round, and it's just like it was. Do you want to trade up, do you want to stay, or do you want to trade back? And what would it cost? What would we be willing to give up or acquire in order to do it?”
 
The Raiders were able to address some needs during free agency, specifically offensive line, on defense. Now, with the draft looming, their approach is different. They’re trying to judge players from big schools and small schools, winning programs and losing programs, players bouncing from system to system after going through the transfer portal and how has NIL changed a potential draftee?

"Yeah, I think there's a lot of prospects in this draft where, especially with the transfer portal, the NIL world that our evaluations, they start the moment these kids get to college,” Stark said. “So, all of these players, you have to be aware of them a little bit earlier, because you have to know the sources that you can talk to learn about these prospects. So, if any of these guys that have transferred, I mean, we're exhausting every resource at every school they've been — where they started, where they transferred to, and the evaluations are constantly evolving right up until the Draft. Like, we're still getting information on all these, we're still talking about the information we've had, that we've accumulated.

“So, it's taking all that information in and then forming our impression, our opinion, on these players. And we're still having conversations right now about a lot of these guys trying to home in on what our impression is. So, it's kind of a never-ending cycle once they start college, especially in today's world.”

The Raiders will be looking for football players. Spytek said what the team went through in free agency is a template he’d like to use in the team’s draft selections.

“We talk so much about it,” he said. “They've got to love football. They need to be great teammates. It's really something that is important to Klint (Kubiak) and to myself and to really all of us up here is being a great player, person, teammate to the guy next to you; disciplined, accountable. I mean a lot of the buzzwords, and a passion to play for the Raiders.

“I think one of the really cool things about free agency that we just saw is that we had a lot of people that wanted to come here, a lot of really good players that were playing in good programs, that sought us out and wanted to be a Raider and through the draft process, we certainly felt that this year too."

As for Kubiak, Spytek said he will have input.

"A lot in a short amount of time, but a lot,” he said. And we had a great set of draft meetings with Klint and his entire staff last week. I thought it was well laid-out by Starkey and the guys and we got a lot of valuable information, not only on the way we're trying to run things and how guys fit into the systems that we're trying to put into place, but really quality evaluations of them as well. And I think that's really important as we put a team together.

“It's not about what Starkey and I think, or the personnel department thinks, or what the coaching staff thinks. It's about, right now, the 10 best players for the Raiders, and last week was a productive week working towards that.”

Spytek said the Raiders’ draft will be a collaborative effort with input from a lot of people. But ultimately, it’s Spytek who makes the call, starting with the very first pick. That pick figures to be Mendoza, who the Raiders think very highly of and who they want to bring along at his own pace, thus the decision to sign veteran free agent Kirk Cousins to assist with helping Mendoza transition from the college game to the NFL.

“Only one team can get the person they want,” he said. “We’re in that position and hopefully this is the only time we do that.”