Raiders Finally Make the Smart Play in '26 Draft, Pumping Brakes on McCoy Before It's Too Late

You know, I have been watching football for a long time, and I have seen teams make every mistake in the book when it comes to the draft. I have seen them reach for quarterbacks who couldn't throw a football straight, I have seen them take running backs in the first round when they needed defensive ends, and I have seen them burn draft capital on players who had more red flags than a Soviet military parade. But one thing I don't see enough of is teams actually being smart enough to STOP themselves before they make a catastrophic mistake. That is what the Raiders did in 2026, and it might be the most underrated move in this entire draft class.

Let me tell you what happened here because it is important. Jermod McCoy was sliding down draft boards like a toboggan going downhill in January, and every single round that went by, you could see more and more teams saying no thank you to this kid. This is a player who had all the physical tools you could ask for. The measurables were there. The tape had some good moments. But something was not right, and teams started noticing it. Sometimes in this league, when a player starts sliding, it is because the film review reveals things that the highlight reels don't show you. Maybe it is a consistency issue. Maybe it is a character concern. Maybe it is an injury that people are not sure about. Whatever it was, McCoy was falling fast, and by the fourth round, a lot of teams were starting to think maybe, just maybe, they could get a steal by taking him at a discount price.

This is where the Raiders showed real discipline. And let me tell you, discipline in the draft room is about as rare as a perfect pass from Johnny Unitas. Most teams, when they see a player with elite talent falling to the fourth round, they start thinking they have found a bargain. They start rationalizing. They start saying to themselves that maybe all those other teams are wrong. They start convincing themselves that they have some special insight or some ability to fix whatever is broken. They convince themselves they are smarter than everybody else. And you know what happens then? You get another Jake Locker or another Blaine Gabbert or another one of those guys who seemed like a steal until he was not.

The Raiders said no to that temptation. They looked at McCoy, they looked at the tape, they looked at all the reasons why so many teams had already passed on him, and they said we are not going to make this mistake. We are not going to try to be heroes. We are not going to convince ourselves that we have discovered some hidden gem that every other organization in professional football missed. We are going to be smart, we are going to be patient, and we are going to respect what the rest of the league is telling us by passing on this kid.

Now, this might seem like a small thing, but trust me when I tell you that this is huge. This is the kind of discipline that separates good front offices from bad ones. I remember back in the day when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers passed on some very talented players because they knew there was something off about them. That front office survived, but so many others did not. They did not because they could not help themselves. They saw a talented kid falling, and they had to take a shot. They had to believe they were different. They had to think they could fix him.

The Raiders have had some rough years, and anybody who has been paying attention knows that. They have had coaching changes, they have had quarterback drama, they have had management turmovers. When you go through that kind of instability, sometimes the natural reaction is to start swinging for the fences on every pick. You start thinking that maybe the next guy will be the one who changes everything. Maybe the next draft class will be the one that turns it around. But you know what good teams do? Good teams build methodically. Good teams respect the process. Good teams understand that not every pick is going to be a home run, and sometimes the best pick is the one you do not make.

This is what impressed me about the Raiders' approach to McCoy. They had multiple opportunities to take him as the rounds went on. They could have convinced themselves at any point that they knew better. But they did not. They stuck to their convictions. They did their homework, they trusted their evaluation, and they said we are going to pass on this one. That takes guts, actually. It takes more guts to pass on a talented player than it does to take a flyer on one, because when you pass and that player struggles, at least you can say you saw it coming. But when you take that player and he fails, well, that is on you forever.

I have been in enough football conversations to know that McCoy is going to have a professional career of some kind. He might play in some NFL camps. He might bounce around practice squads. He might go to the USFL or the CFL or something else. But the reality that the Raiders recognized is that he is not going to be a difference maker at the level this team needs. And that is okay. That is just football. Not every talented kid works out.

What this means for Raiders fans is that their front office is finally showing some wisdom and restraint. It means they are not just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. It means they are thinking long term and building the right way. It means they understand that playoff teams are not built through desperation moves in the draft. They are built through careful evaluation, smart picks, and the discipline to say no when something does not feel right. For a franchise that has been through as much turmoil as the Raiders have been through, this kind of thinking is exactly what they need. This is how you climb back to relevance. Not by being flashy or taking crazy chances, but by being smart and doing your homework.