Raiders-Jets trade idea ends with Fernando Mendoza drafted not to Las Vegas
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Raiders-Jets trade idea ends with Fernando Mendoza drafted not to Las Vegas originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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The Las Vegas Raiders are almost certainly going to use the No. 1 overall pick in this month's NFL Draft to take Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza.
But what if they don't? That's the question posed by ESPN's Bill Barnwell in his new trade-filled mock draft.
Barnwell operates under the premise for this exercise that each pick will be traded, and he explores what such a deal might look like.
In this case, he suggests the Raiders could trade the first pick for Nos. 2, 33 and 103.
"If you've been reading this piece over the past few years, you know I'm perpetually apologizing at the first overall pick," Barnwell writes. "In most drafts, the first overall selection is a promising young quarterback going to a team that desperately needs one. That team is never going to trade out of that pick, which makes a conceit that's already hypothetical even more preposterous. I know."
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He goes on to spell out the one way this could happen: Essentially, that the Raiders aren't actually too pumped about Mendoza and would be happy with Alabama's Ty Simpson at the second pick.
"In an ideal world, if the Raiders preferred Simpson, they would be able to trade down to the middle of the first round and land him while picking up significant draft capital in the process," Barnwell writes. "That's a dangerous game to play, though. Let's say the Raiders trade the No. 1 pick to the Browns, who want Mendoza, and move down to No. 6. What if the Jets, who have visited with Simpson, take the 23-year-old quarterback at No. 2, shutting the Raiders out altogether?"
This definitely doesn't seem likely, and Barnwell is honest about that.
But he's probably right that it's the only logical Mendoza trade scenario that exists.
"Anything that doesn't end with the Raiders drafting Mendoza in Pittsburgh would be shocking," Barnwell writes. "I think it's more likely that Simpson falls out of the first round altogether than it is he lands in the top five, let alone the top two. But if things don't break that way, this is one way for the Raiders to find their quarterback and add more in the process."
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