The Las Vegas Raiders already made one of the most notable quarterback trades of the 2025 NFL offseason when they acquired Geno Smith from the Seattle Seahawks. Now, they've made another interesting one.
The Raiders acquired former first-round pick Kenny Pickett from the Cleveland Browns as Pickett continues his apparent tour around the NFL these days. Although things didn't work out with him as a member of the Steelers, Pickett has retained an intriguingly high value for other teams around the NFL.
The Eagles traded for him before he was traded to the Browns, and now he's been traded to the Raiders. And it wasn't for some meaningless late-round pick swap, either.
Raiders make head-scratching trade for QB Kenny Pickett
The Raiders are sending a 5th-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft to Cleveland in exchange for Pickett. The Browns got an offer they couldn't refuse, even though their plan was to keep four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster.
The Raiders are going to be without quarterback Aidan O'Connell for the first 6-8 weeks of the season, but this is a bit of a knee-jerk overreaction to that type of news. You don't need to spend a 5th-round pick on a guy who doesn't know the offense at this point, and is possibly not even going to be on the team after the season.
Raiders general manager John Spytek has been part of successful reclamation projects at the quarterback position (Baker Mayfield), but this may be taking things a step too far. At the end of the day, it's just a future 5th-round pick. Those are pretty easily recouped. But it also represents pretty significant draft value for a team whose cupboard is relatively bare on the defensive side of the ball.
The Raiders couldn't find literally anyone else to fill in as a backup quarterback to their biggest offseason investment?
This also becomes a tough situation for Pickett, who will have to learn a new offense very quickly to be ready in case his number is called for any reason. With his NFL future hanging in the balance after this year, this is a trade literally nobody asked for that understandably took everyone off guard.
Again, is it really that big of a deal? The Raiders needed a new backup quarterback, and they found someone they think can fit. It just seems like they could have figured this out without spending valuable draft capital they're going to need to throw darts to help build this roster in the near future.