The Las Vegas Raiders‘ offense has been among the best in the NFL, and they’ve been doing it with one of the weaker wide receiver rooms. The room was considered weak before the season, and now it’s down Jack Bech and possibly Jalen Nailor.
The Raiders won’t be inclined to trade a high draft pick. While the team has been better than expected, they are still a building team that needs to take the future into account.
This means that if the Raiders make a trade, it will likely be for a talented wide receiver who has underperformed. Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. has been a popular trade candidate.
The former No. 4 pick was one of the most hyped wide receiver prospects to come out in recent years. He was a dominant force at Ohio State and won the Fred Biletnikoff Award in 2023. If the Cardinals want to trade him, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer thinks the Raiders make a lot of sense for Harrison.
“If there’s a guy that you can get that’s on a rookie contract, where you say, ‘OK, this guy can be here for the next five years’ … how about Marvin Harrison Jr.? If I’m the Raiders, that’s somebody I make a phone call on because I think that things have gotten so tangled up and messed up in Arizona for Marvin that both sides could use a reset.”
Difficult to Get a Gauge of Harrison’s Value
The Cardinals used a very valuable draft pick to add Harrison. This is only his third season, so it would be a tough pill to swallow to give up on him now.
However, he may just not be a fit with the team anymore, and a fresh start might be best for both sides. The question is how much is a team willing to pay for Harrison. Breer floated the idea of offering a conditional draft pick.
“I think the Cardinals would be open to it,” Breer said. “Do you swing a conditional four that can become a three or a two in a couple of years if he produces at a really high level? Would that be enough? I don’t know.”
Could Be Worth the Risk
Harrison hasn’t been the player many teams thought he would be. That’s a real concern. The Cardinals have been a mess during his tenure, but it hasn’t stopped players like Trey McBride and Michael Wilson from having success.
That’s why the Raiders can’t give anything more than a fourth-round pick outright for Harrison. A conditional pick based on certain incentives could make sense, but it should be based on statistics over games played.
If Harrison can reach his potential, that would be massive for the Raiders. It would alleviate the need to draft a wide receiver early next year and would allow them to use valuable draft picks to build out the rest of the roster. If the Raiders think that Harrison is a fit in Klint Kubiak’s offense, it would absolutely be worth the risk to add him for the right price.
Insider Pitches Raiders Trade Conditional Pick For Award-Winning WR