Regardless of What Experts Think, the Raiders Are Locked In on QB1

No matter what they do, the Las Vegas Raiders are a lightning rod for attention around the National Football League. The Raiders undoubtedly receive more attention than most teams that have lost nearly 30 games in the last two seasons, a testament to the Raiders' stature in the league.

Raiders' Opinion Box is Closed

Las Vegas has a long way to go to turn their roster around. The Raiders have had one of the worst rosters in the league over the past few seasons. They have already gotten to work fixing that, with a productive start to free agency. After spending big in free agency, Las Vegas turns to the draft.

The Raiders will use 10 draft picks to help at talent and depth to a roster still in need of both across the board. After using the No. 1 pick on quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Raiders will have nine other picks they must use wisely to find competent talent.

Mendoza appears to be the best quarterback in the draft. Yet, some draft experts disagree on this notion, as they believe Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson is better. League insider Daniel Jeremiah is not one of those people. Jeremiah believes, like the Raiders do, that Mendoza is the best option.

“Obviously, you can talk to different people, but I have not talked to anyone that has that [opinion],” Jeremiah said.

“That’s not saying that he’s saying anything untrue, he’s just talking to different folks, apparently, than the folks that I’ve been talking to. And that goes from the Raiders, and a bunch of other teams too. It wasn’t particularly close.”

Regardless of what the experts think, Mendoza will be drafted by the Raiders in the upcoming NFL Draft. Still, that does not mean that Simpson may not turn out to be just as good, if not better than Mendoza in the long run. However, nobody has a crystal ball to be able to tell that.

As it stands, Mendoza has a better body of work than Simpson and warrants being drafted No. 1 overall. There is nothing Simpson did in his collegiate career that suggests he is better than Mendoza right now, which is all that matters to the Raiders at the moment.

"We're looking for leadership traits. Can he be a connector? Is he smart? Is he endearing? Does he have humility? I mean, all the things we've talked about. We're going to get 18 minutes to spend with these guys this week in those formal interviews. It's a dip your toe in the water, get to know these guys,” Raiders general manager John Spytek recently said when describing what he is looking for in a quarterback.

"I think personality always matters at any position, and probably more so at the quarterback position because that is what people think is the leader. That is what you really hope to get, is that person that drives the culture, drives the team and all that. So, yeah, of course I think personality does matter."