Bryan Edwards Trade Highlights Raiders' Biggest Flaw

The Las Vegas Raiders pulled off a surprising move on Friday, trading promising wide receiver Bryan Edwards to the Atlanta Falcons for fifth- and seventh-round picks at the 2023 NFL Draft.

Edwards will get a proper chance to shine in the Falcons' weak WR room, but the trade also highlights one of the Raiders' biggest flaws: their drafting. The 23-year-old's departure means that each of Las Vegas' picks from the 2020 draft is no longer with the team.

Las Vegas Raiders News

Roster turnover happens all the time in professional sports, but losing your top-5 prospects from a draft that was only two years ago is seriously alarming. Even if guys like Henry Ruggs III and Damon Arnette were released due to legal issues, it shows that the Raiders' scouts need to do a better job of knowing who they're drafting.

If that wasn't worrying enough to look at, the Raiders have already declined the fifth-year option of their three first-round picks from 2019 this offseason: Clelin Ferrell (No. 4), Josh Jacobs (No. 24) and Johnathan Abram (No. 27).

The inability to draft well or keep drafted players beyond a handful of years could hurt Las Vegas in the long run. After all, players might be cautious about playing for an organization that is willing to move on from players that quickly.

The silver lining is that the man behind the 2019 and 2020 draft classes — Mike Mayock — was fired at the beginning of the offseason. Dave Ziegler is the new general manager going forward and time will tell if his draft decisions actually pay off.

Ziegler worked hard this offseason to turn the Raiders into a contender, with a Super Bowl being the ultimate goal. It could be a long road to get there, though, as FanDuel Sportsbook is listing Las Vegas at +4000 (T-No. 17) to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy next February.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.