Ziegler Feels a 'Healthy Pressure' Ahead of the Draft

Las Vegas Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler hopes his team's prospects in this year's draft will develop better than in recent years.

The Las Vegas Raiders have not had much luck developing draft prospects into the players they were anticipated to be in the last few years.

Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler proved he could get the job done in free agency last offseason, and next month, he and the rest of his regime will have an opportunity to show what they can do with a wide range of picks in this year's NFL Draft.

"It's a healthy pressure, and it's a healthy kind of anxiousness," Ziegler said at the NFL Combine last Tuesday. "I mean, it's part of like the juice, like the fun of being in personnel. But to your specific question, yeah, we want to improve our homegrown talent. That's something that hasn't materialized here over the years. Again, it shows you it's a difficult process; there are no guarantees to it.

"But I think we feel like we have an opportunity this year with the amount of picks that we do have, with where we're picking, that we have an opportunity this year to build that core group of players. That doesn't always mean that you have 12 superstars and 12 starters. Some of those guys are working-class individuals who provide depth to your team, too. But yes, there's a healthy excitement, a healthy anxiousness and anxiety to we have that opportunity in front of us and go capitalize on it."    

The 2023 NFL Draft will go from April 27-29 and be held at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo. March 7, 2023, before 4 p.m. EST, is the club's deadline to designate Franchise or Transition Players.

March 13-15 is the free agent negotiation period. Starting at 12 p.m. EDT on March 13 and ending at 3:59:59 p.m. EDT on March 15, clubs are permitted to contact and enter into contract negotiations with the certified agents of players who will become Unrestricted Free Agents upon the expiration of their 2022 Player Contracts at 4 p.m. EDT on March 15.

The 2023 NFL Year and Free Agency period begins at 4 p.m. EDT on March 15. The Raiders are expected to be significant players in the free-agent market this season.

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