Dave Ziegler left plenty of carnage behind in Sin City. But which Las Vegas Raiders draft picks panned out? We rank his best picks; be warned, it isn’t pretty.
Ziegler and Josh McDaniels combined to burn roughly $90 million in guaranteed money across 22 months in Las Vegas, one of the shortest and costliest coach-GM marriages in franchise history. The Raiders are still living with the draft picks. Here’s how they stack up, best to worst, using games played and weighted approximate value (wAV) as the scoreboard.
1. Michael Mayer, TE (2023, Round 2, No. 35)
The lone survivor with a real future. Mayer just signed a three-year extension, a clear signal that new head coach Klint Kubiak sees him as a building block rather than a leftover. With Brock Bowers sidelined by knee surgery, Mayer gets the kind of opportunity that could turn “solid” into “starter.” Three uneven seasons preceded this moment; the tape still owes people an explanation.
2. Tre Tucker, WR (2023, Round 3, No. 100)
Fifty games, 13 wAV, and the best return-on-investment of the entire Ziegler catalog. Nobody drafted Tucker to be a centerpiece, and he’s not, but a Day 3 receiver who stays healthy and productive is exactly the kind of quiet competence this front office rarely managed. But with Bowers out, he may very well be the de facto No. 1 wideout now.
Related: Klint Kubiak sends a clear message ahead of season opener
3. Dylan Parham, OL (2022, Round 3, No. 90)
Sixty-four games and 20 wAV, tops among the 2022 class. Parham was durable and useful on the interior line, which in this era of Raiders football counts as a triumph. However, he has reunited with Geno Smith in New York; perhaps they’ll help the organization get their own franchise quarterback next year.
4. Thayer Munford, OL (2022, Round 7, No. 238)
A seventh-round lineman with 51 games and 11 wAV is a scouting department doing its job, briefly. It’s also a reminder of how thin the hits were once you leave the first three rounds of 2023. Even though he’s in New England now, you could certainly rank him as a dub for Ziegler.
5. Byron Young, DL (2023, Round 3, No. 70)
The pick that launched a thousand conspiracy theories. Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers has floated the idea that the front office meant to take the other Byron Young, the Alabama product who went to the Los Angeles Rams and made a Pro Bowl, and grabbed the Tennessee version by mistake. Nothing has ever confirmed it.
The Raiders’ Young has 23 games and two wAV to his name, which is doing the theory no favors.
The Tyree Wilson conversation…
The No. 7 overall pick in 2023 has zero career approximate value and zero Pro Bowls through three seasons, a brutal return on a top-10 investment, especially with Bijan Robinson, Jalen Carter, Jahmyr Gibbs, Christian Gonzalez and Jaxon Smith-Njigba all still on the board when Las Vegas made the call.
Two years, 14 selections, and the honest tally is one likely long-term piece, one quietly effective complementary player, and a top-10 bust that will define the era. Tom Telesco inherited a cupboard that wasn’t just bare; it was actively working against him. Judged by outcomes alone, McDaniels and Ziegler didn’t just fail to build a roster. They spent two drafts making the next regime’s job harder.
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images