"Mock Draft Nightmare: Raiders Land Shedeur Sanders but Chiefs Steal Top Talent

It is officially mock draft season in the NFL.

With the Las Vegas Raiders already on the rapidly growing list of teams eliminated from postseason contention, they will be paying attention for the rest of the season and beyond on where they can reasonably get the prospects they want.

Nate Tice and Charles McDonald of Yahoo! Sports unveiled their latest mock draft and, if it is remotely close to how the real thing plays out, the Raiders are in for a doozy.

To rule out the obvious, the Raiders do get their franchise quarterback in Tice and McDonald’s draft, selecting Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders with the sixth overall pick. The idea of Sanders dropping out of the top five may be unrealistic, but the Raiders will not complain about their stroke of luck.

The issue for the Raiders lays not with their own pick, but rather who the rest of the division ends up getting.

The Los Angeles Chargers draft Penn State tight end Tyler Warren at pick number 20 in the same draft, while the Denver Broncos select Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka with the 22nd pick. Two division rivals coming off of better-than-anticipated seasons filling their biggest needs with top prospects is already not ideal.

Then, with the Kansas City Chiefs picking at 32, Tice and McDonald make a choice that would concern the Raiders greatly. In this instance, the Chiefs select Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.

“A steal!,” said Tice and McDonald about the selection.

“Ashton Jeanty is one of the two or three best players in the class but winds up in the hands of the Chiefs, who should be thrilled about being able to add him to the offense. Jeanty has a rare combination of strength, balance and speed that will make him a nightmare for NFL defenses.”

Now, the idea of Jeanty sliding all the way down to the Chiefs seems unrealistic at first glance. According to the NFL Mock Draft Database, Jeanty is the 11th best prospect on their consensus big board and is projected to go to the Dallas Cowboys with the 15th overall pick.

That being said, with how undervalued certain positions like running back are in the modern NFL landscape, the idea of Jeanty slipping further than expected is not so absurd.

Jeanty sliding to a team like the Chargers or Broncos would be bad enough, but against a perennial champion contender and divisional nemesis like the Chiefs? That should scare not just the Raiders, but the entire NFL.

Jeanty has all the makings of an offensive dynamo for years to come. Him falling to the Chiefs, of all teams, would be a catastrophic turn of events for the Raiders.