The Las Vegas Raiders took advantage of other teams trading ahead of them to take offensive line talent in the 2024 NFL Draft, and they pivoted from lower-level talent to take super stud tight end prospect Brock Bowers at the #13 pick. He should pay off immediately for the Raiders, who likely move to two tight end sets thanks to the addition. But, what of their entire draft? How will Dylan Laube fare in 2024 redraft leagues? Let’s dive in and figure it all out.
FULL 2024 LAS VEGAS RAIDERS DRAFT RESULTS
| Round | Pick | Player | Pos | College |
| 1 | 13 | Brock Bowers | TE | Georgia |
| 2 | 44 | Jackson Powers-Johnson | C | Oregon |
| 3 | 77 | Delmar Glaze | OT | Maryland |
| 4 | 112 | Decamerion Richardson | CB | Mississippi St |
| 5 | 148 | Tommy Eichenberg | LB | Ohio St |
| 6 | 208 | Dylan Laube | RB | New Hampshire |
| 7 | 223 | Trey Taylor | S | Air Force |
| 7 | 229 | M.J. Devonshire | CB | Pitt |
Round 1, Pick 13 Overall: Brock Bowers, Tight End, Georgia (6’3” 243 lbs)
[Note: The following is an excerpt from our Round One Instant Reaction piece.]
Talent:
Brock Bowers is the entire package. He’s an excellent blocker and an incredible pass catcher, and he has the YAC ability of the best of them in the NFL. The Bulldogs used him all over the formation, in a variety of roles, and he thrived in all of them. Bowers is as comfortable as the lead blocker as he is the leading target, and he runs real, big-boy routes. So many times you see tight ends who just find a hole in the defense and sit, racking up whatever the defense gives them because they’ve decided to not see the tight end as a threat. Not Bowers, he pushes the issue with defenders and he makes them pay for their mistakes. He has great hands and is hard to bring down. He does struggle in traffic and with contested catches, but that’s true of most tight ends at the college level. Bowers ticks all the boxes to be a great tight end for a long time, and unlike Kyle Pitts Jimmy Graham, and other guys who are tight ends in name only, Bowers puts his hands in chests and moves people. He truly does it all and is head and shoulders above the rest of the class.
NFL Comparison: George Kittle
2024 Opportunity:
There is exactly one (1) decent option on the offense outside of Brock Bowers for the Raiders in 2024. Unfortunately, that includes the quarterbacks. While I don’t think that Bowers will take away from Davante Adams, he kills Jakobi Meyers’ value, as well as Michael Mayer. Unfortunately, Aidan O’Connell will be his quarterback this season, at least until Gardner Minshew takes over when the Raiders want a meme. Unfortunately for Bowers, they ranked outside the top half of the league in accuracy and passer rating statistics.
The Raiders and head coach Antonio Pierce want to be a hardnosed football team, which makes me fear that they drafted Bowers for his blocking as much (or more) as they did his receiving.
2024 Outlook:
He will get (nearly) an unprecedented opportunity to succeed in fantasy football his rookie year, and he falls firmly inside of The Blob for me this season. I will need to see it from a rookie tight end before I can move him out of The Blob because doing otherwise is looking for trouble. That being said, the era of outright degrading a tight end for being a rookie might be at an end, but I still don’t want to take him with a single-digit round pick.
TALENT:
2024 OPPORTUNITY:
2024 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK:
Round 6, Pick 208 Overall: Dylan Laube, Running Back, New Hampshire (5’10” 206 lbs)
Talent:
Laube is a sort of “jack of all trades, master of none” type of running back. He isn’t particularly elusive, or explosive, but that isn’t to say that he doesn’t have utility as a player. He’s an efficient runner, but unfortunately, that efficient running seems to have capped his running skillset. He’s more effective as a pass catcher out of the backfield than a pure runner, which means that in the pros he would be best suited as a third-down back, like Samaje Perine or Boston Scott. Laube also has utility as a return man, as he did that for New Hampshire in college.
2024 Opportunity:
The Raiders likely won’t see Laube taking significant touches from Zamir White, as he doesn’t have the skill set to handle an every-down-banger role. But, he does have utility as a jackknife, meaning he could find a nice niche as a pass-catching back and return man for the Raiders. Unfortunately, that seems to be his ceiling, at least for now, due to his limited ability as an every-down runner.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
Laube, unless Zamir White has an injury, profiles as nothing more than a passing downs back in his rookie year, so if everything goes right, he’s more likely to be a guy you snag as a bye-week flex rather than a guy you take in your drafts. Still, I don’t know how things go right for him.
