The Las Vegas Raiders are hopeful to get things turned around in the desert and establish the winning culture that has been missing from the fabric of the organization since relocating from Oakland.
To aid in this, the Raiders brought in a pair of proven winners in seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, who is now a minority owner of the team, and legendary head coach, who is entering his first season as Las Vegas’ head coach.
The Raiders also brought in John Spytek to serve as the team’s general manager, his first time in the role. Spytek recently spoke about the Raiders’ approach in the draft next week, where betting markets are assuming they’ll take former Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
“I’m going to be careful about talking about any specific player,” Spytek said. “But, more broadly to the running back question, I mean, we just saw Saquon Barkley just change the Eagles in one year. Now they had a great team around him, and it was adding an elite player.
“I think when you sit where we sit, the idea is to add elite players at any position. I don’t try to devalue any certain position.
“There’s times in games where there’s nobody you’d rather have than the best kicker in the league, too, right, in that moment. There’s certain ways to build a team, and I don’t know where we got to a place where we feel like running backs aren’t valued.
“I come from the University of Michigan to my core, and those guys were certainly really valued there, and it’s hard for me to get away from that.”
No running backs went in the first round of last year’s draft, but Jeanty is shaping up to be a transcendent talent.
