By winning 19-14 against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, the Las Vegas Raiders may have ruined their chance at a top quarterback in the upcoming NFL Draft. According to Tankathon, the victory and other results from Sunday officially dropped the Raiders from No. 1 overall to No. 6.
But it doesn’t appear anyone in the organization cares all that much about the long-term consequences. The lowly Raiders, who hadn’t won a game since late September and were on a 10-game losing streak coming in, just wanted to finish with more points than the other team for once.
That includes owner Mark Davis.
According to The Athletic’s Tashan Reed, Davis was seen hyping up kicker Daniel Carlson and punter AJ Cole in the postgame locker room while the Raiders finally celebrated a victory. When you note that Davis also encouraged each Raiders player as they left the locker room, it makes it pretty apparent the person with the most power in the organization didn’t want to think about what this might mean for Las Vegas’ draft position:
#Raiders owner Mark Davis was in the locker room clapping and talking to Daniel Carlson and AJ Cole when the locker room opened to the media. Some other players were dancing. Davis was in a good mood. Doesn't seem to care about the draft order ramifications of the win over JAX.
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) December 23, 2024
Davis telling each player “way to fight” as they leave locker room
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) December 23, 2024
The win Sunday was very consequential to how the Raiders might move forward. At this point, even in a draft that doesn’t have a supposed “generational” quarterback prospect, if they want someone like Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward, they may have to trade up. Those kinds of quarterback trades often prove quite costly for teams trying to find their hopeful franchise player under center.
But it’s worth remembering that people affiliated with the organization — especially players — don’t necessarily think about draft position the way fans from the outside looking in do. They truly just want to win because they’re never guaranteed a hypothetical tomorrow centered around draft assets that may or may not work out. Succeeding on every individual gameday means a lot more than securing a chance at drafting young players who may never even share a field with you.
The Raiders’ win could potentially muddle many of their near-future plans, but they don’t care. And rightly so.