Silver Minings: Could Raiders trade No. 12 pick to Eagles?

Happy Saturday, everyone.

Just thought I’d make a quick introduction. My name is Blake Harris, and I’m a California Community Editor here at SB Nation. I’m going to be helping out with draft coverage over the course of the next week.

A quick background on me. In December, I graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University with a degree in sports journalism. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, right next to Pasadena.

Growing up in LA, I didn’t have a team. Most of my family members were Raiders fans, so from an early age I was watching Raiders games on TV. As I kid, I looked up to Reggie Bush at USC, so when he was drafted by the Saints I adopted them as my team, which they remain to this date. As I mentioned, with my family members and a lot of friends Raiders fans, I’ve watched as many of their games as Saints games over the years (maybe even more).

One thing I’ll say is, I’ve always admired Raiders fans. I think they are easily some of the most passionate fans in the NFL, and you all have a great community here at Silver and Black Pride. Looking forward to helping with the content and getting to know everyone!

We’re less than a week from the NFL Draft, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty as to how the dominos will fall. However, it’s a near guarantee that the Raiders will use one of their early picks on a wide receiver. With this being arguably the deepest wide receiver class in recent memory, the Raiders have a lot of options.

Sitting at No. 12, they will likely have their pick of either Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb or Henry Ruggs III. But the question at hand is, will the Raiders be picking at 12 come draft night?

According to Joe Tordy of 97.5 in Philadelphia, he says that the Eagles are “aggressively” pursuing a trade-up in the draft to likely draft Lamb.

Just like the Raiders, the Eagles desperately need a wide receiver. There are going to be some really talented wideouts available at No. 21, but by the looks of it, Philadelphia doesn’t have their eyes set on any of them. As he reports in the tweet, if the top guys are gone, the Eagles could be trading out of their pick to move back in the draft.

With the Eagles supposedly “in-love” with Lamb, desperate times could lead to desperate measures. Along with their No. 21 pick, the Eagles also own pick No. 53. Their next pick after that isn’t until 103. You would think if the Raiders were to trade back, they’d get at least both those first two picks. With no second rounder in this draft, the Raiders have to wait 61 picks until their next selection after 19. Adding a second-rounder could be viewed as a bonus for them.

Again, this is all speculation, but who knows what could happen. I would think the Raiders would have to be overwhelmed with a trade haul that would be too crazy to turn down. And remember, if the Raiders were to do this deal, they could also package their No. 19 pick to potentially move up, and still get a guy like Jeudy or Ruggs.

A lot will go down between now and Thursday, and a lot of chaos will definitely happen. Just something to keep an eye on.

Saturday links

• 20 years ago, the Bears planned to take Sebastian Janikowski in the second round... then the Raiders stepped in... taking him in the first round. Mike Sando from The Athletic took a look back at the day Oakland shocked the world and took a kicker in the first. In addition, Bill also shared his thoughts yesterday on the selection.
• According to Jason Cole, he said Judge Spero will dismiss the Oakland lawsuit against the Raiders, based on the sounds of the hearing from yesterday. Question remains about whether that will be with or without prejudice.
• The Raiders have signed a handful of new players this offseason. Here are five facts you didn’t know about Nelson Agholor, Nick O’Leary, Cory Littleton, Maliek Collins and Carl Nassib.
• Jeff Heath explains how familiarity and opportunity influenced his decision to join the Raiders.