List of Las Vegas Raiders first-round draft picks

The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's American Football Conference West Division.^[4] Founded on January 30, 1960, as the Oakland Raiders, they were a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) and joined the NFL in 1970 following the AFL–NFL merger.^[5][6][7] The team departed Oakland to play in Los Angeles from the 1982 season through the 1994 season, becoming the Los Angeles Raiders, before returning to Oakland and switching back to being the Oakland Raiders at the start of the 1995 season.^[5][8] Prior to the start of the 2020 season, the Raiders moved to Las Vegas and changed their name to the Las Vegas Raiders.^[9] The team began utilizing Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, for home games the same year.^[10]

The NFL draft, officially known as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting",^[11][12][13] is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment.^[14] The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings; the teams with the worst win–loss records receive the earliest picks. Teams that qualified for the NFL playoffs select after non-qualifiers, and their order depends on how far they advanced, using their regular season record as a tie-breaker. The final two selections in the first round are reserved for the Super Bowl runner-up and champion. Draft picks are tradable and players or other picks can be acquired with them.^[15]

Before the merger agreements in 1966, the AFL directly competed with the NFL and held a separate draft. This led to a bidding war over top prospects between the two leagues, along with the subsequent drafting of the same player in each draft. As part of the merger agreement on June 8, 1966, the two leagues began holding a multiple round "common draft". Once the AFL officially merged with the NFL in 1970, the "common draft" simply became the NFL draft.^[16][17][18] The first AFL draft was held prior to the start of the 1960 season. The first round of the 1960 AFL draft was territorial selections. Each team received a "territorial pick" which allowed them to select a single player within a pre-agreed upon designated region (the team's "territory"). Teams then agreed on the top eight players at each position, who were subsequently assigned to teams by random draw, with each of the eight teams receiving one of those players. This process was repeated until all 53 roster spots were filled.^[19] Beginning in the 1961 draft, the AFL, using the same system as the NFL, began to assign picks based on the previous season's standings.^[20]

Since the team's first draft, the Raiders have selected 64 players in the first round.^[21] The team's first-round pick in the inaugural AFL draft was Dale Hackbart, a defensive back from Wisconsin; he was the team's territorial selection.^[19][22][23] The Raiders have drafted first overall once, selecting JaMarcus Russell in the 2007 NFL draft.^[21] In the most recent draft, held in 2024, the Raiders selected Georgia tight end Brock Bowers.^[24]

The Raiders did not draft a player in the first round on eleven occasions.^[21] Five of the team's first-round picks—Marcus Allen, Tim Brown, Ray Guy, Gene Upshaw, and Charles Woodson—have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.^[25][26] The Raiders used four first-round picks in the 1960s to select players—Roman Gabriel, Dale Hackbart, Tony Lorick, and Joe Rutgens—who chose to sign with the NFL instead.^{[27][28][29][30][31]}