Raiders GM Tom Telesco Talks Needs vs. Best Available

Las Vegas Raiders general manager Tom Telesco discussed whether he prioritizes needs or the best player available.

There's always the two most common approaches in any sporting draft: needs and best available.

For Las Vegas Raiders general manager Tom Telesco, both can be considered, but your needs aren't always what you might think they are.

"Yeah, I mean, that's the question every year," Telesco said at his presser on Monday. "You try and balance it out, but the biggest thing is your needs change, and they're unpredictable. A need we may have today may not be a need in August. We may have a player in the building right now that continues to develop and grow and fills that need. We may have a position group who feels really strong today and then, we get to September, October, and it's not that strong.

"So, the story I'm told here -- I guess it would be my first year with the Chargers. Our roster needed a lot of work, but I felt like our receiver group was our strongest group on the football team. So, we're in the draft, we're in the third round, and Keenan Allen's card is staring at us, just begging us to take him. And we decide, 'All right, we'll take him, but more than likely, we'll probably redshirt the year, we don't really have a spot for him. He may even be inactive every week.' And then, we get into May OTAs, and one receiver gets hurt. We get into training camp, another receiver really didn't perform the way we thought he would and then, in September, another receiver got hurt, Keenan jumps in the game in September, and he's Rookie of the Year that year.

"So, like I said, your needs change quickly and unpredictably. So, it's hard to go into the draft just thinking how we're going to line up this opening day. We got to take a little bit of a more long-range approach to it and looking up four or five years down the road rather than just how they fit today."

With all that considered, it seems Telesco and the Raiders could really go in any direction in this year's NFL Draft.

The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently have the No. 13 overall pick.

Ensure you follow on X (Twitter) @HondoCarpenter and IG @HondoSr and never miss another breaking news story again.

Please let us know your thoughts when you like our Facebook page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.