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Dave Ziegler’s first year as the Las Vegas Raiders general manager was a mixed bag. Davante Adams and Mack Hollins were great additions while Chandler Jones was disappointing. On the draft front, third-round pick Dylan Parham was the only rookie from the class to play significant snaps.
It remains to be seen how Ziegler will perform in the draft as he didn’t have a first or second-round pick last year due to the Adams trade. However, the previous regime was notoriously bad in the draft. Out of the six first-round picks former general manager Mike Mayock made with the Raiders, running back Josh Jacobs appears to be the only one who will be on the team next season and even he’s not a guarantee to stick around.
Ziegler is starting to take drastic steps in reshaping the team’s front office. According to Neil Stratton, the Raiders have fired Northeast/Midlands scout Glenn “Shemy” Schembechler, Southeast scout Zack Crockett and scouting coordinator Jack Gilmore.
Schembechler and Gilmore had been with the Raiders for over three years. Crockett joined the team in 1999 as a fullback. He played for eight years with the team and has been a scout for 14 years. Considering his ties to the franchise, it’s a significant move to let him go.
Ziegler Hoping to Add More Homegrown Talent
The Raiders haven’t drafted well for a very long time, which is why they’ve been consistently one of the worst teams in the NFL. They have made the playoffs just twice over the past two decades. If Ziegler is going to succeed in Las Vegas, he needs to improve how the Raiders draft. He knows that and is focused on adding more homegrown talent.
“The No. 1 goal is increasing the homegrown talent that has just been absent here for a while. Just specifically, that goes into drafting well,” Ziegler told Tashan Reed of The Athletic. “And I would say, overall, improving the defense. There’s going to be a level of focus on that. That’s just the reality of things. I don’t think that’s a big reach when you look at some of our deficiencies this year. But I’d say the overarching goal is improving the homegrown talent on this team and coming out of this year’s draft with some players that, if we’re sitting down here four years from now — again, you’re not going to hit on every pick; that never happens — but we’re talking about we were able to have four or five players that are core players here that are going to be Las Vegas Raiders for the next four or five years and are going to be contributors.”
Ziegler Talks Talent Level of 2023 Draft
As of now, the Raiders hold nine picks in the 2023 NFL Draft, including two picks within the top 40. If the team hopes to fix many of its issues, it’ll need to find impact players with at least a few of those picks. So far, Ziegler is liking the amount of depth he’s seeing in this draft class.
“The depth of the draft is probably a little bit stronger than the high-end talent,” Ziegler told Reed. “You might not have the Trevor Lawrence, the Ja’Marr Chase or the Jaylen Waddle or those kinds of sexier names, but I think there’s definitely some depth and I think there are a couple of positions on the defensive side of the ball that are fairly deep at least kind of on first glance.”
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