Silver Minings: Recent draft value at bottom of NFL

There is much hope and belief in new Las Vegas Raiders’ general manager Dave Ziegler when it comes to the draft moving forward.

We don’t yet know what Ziegler’s six-player draft class from this year will do for the franchise, but we do know the Raiders badly need better overall draft classes. We all know the team has struggled in most of the recent draft classes.

According to Pro Football Focus, they have been at the bottom of the league. PFF conducted a five-year study from 2017-21 and found that the Raiders have gotten the least value in the entire league during that time span.

Reggie McKenzie ran the Raiders draft in 2017, while Jon Gruden was in charge from 2018-21. Of course, Mike Mayock was part of the Raider’s draft brain trust from 2019-2021.

Yes, there were some hits in that time span such as Kolton Miller, Maxx Crosby and Hunter Renfrow. But there were also major whiffs in most of the years including first-round Gareon Conley, Clelin Ferrell and Damon Arnette to name a few.

Of course, the Raiders can’t do anything about those mistakes now. They can only hope Ziegler changes the trend.

In other Raiders’ links:

• Mail call: The Athletic has a Raiders’ mailbag.
• Blocked: Bill Belichick did block one coach Patriots coach from joining Josh McDaniels in Las Vegas this offseason.
• Not Good? Bleacher Report predicts the Raiders will cut guard Denzelle Good this summer.
• West is best: CBS Sports has the AFC West ranked No. 1 in its current NFL divisional power rankings.