Should the Oakland Raiders Have Gotten More for the 3rd Overall Pick?

In the sense that every draft pick is an unknown, every player’s value is directly tied to their draft slot until they step onto the field for the first time as professional players. Draft picks will turn into players, and the value they have needs to be maximized when trading.

Failure to get fair value can negatively impact a team over time.

Should the Oakland Raiders have gotten more for the third overall pick? Did the Raiders maximize the value of their resource? Those are the questions that you have to ask, considering the Raiders moved down nine spots in the first round and only received one second-round pick in return. 

There are several ways to evaluate a draft trade, and no one way is superior to another. The draft is a market, and values rise and fall each year. The perceived quality of the draft usually determines if the market is up or down in any given year.

The market was very clearly down in 2013, with a lack of elite talent at the top of the draft. There wasn’t a top quarterback, a star wide receiver or even consensus top pass-rusher. If there had been an elite player available, it would have been unlikely that the Raiders were willing to move down at all. Star players can be franchise-altering, and the Raiders probably wish that kind of player was available.



Considering the market was down, it’s tough to expect the Raiders to get full value for the third pick. Despite what you may read online, teams probably only had about 15 players with first-round grades and most of them were bunched together. There was a reason so many offensive linemen went off the board and with high picks in the first round.

According to the old Jimmy Johnson trade chart, the Raiders received just 76.4 percent of the value for the No. 3 pick. Based on that trade chart, the third pick is worth 2,200 points, and the 12th and 42nd picks are worth a combined 1,680 points. The 52...