{"id":257728,"date":"2025-12-06T13:20:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=257728"},"modified":"2025-12-06T13:23:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:23:37","slug":"raiders-predicted-to-draft-third-round-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/12\/06\/raiders-predicted-to-draft-third-round-quarterback\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Predicted to Draft Third-Round Quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2-10 Las Vegas Raiders have been eliminated from playoff contention. Now it’s Raiders mock draft time. Ian Cummings<\/a> of Pro Football Network put one together. He has the team taking wide receiver Carnell Tate<\/a> and offensive lineman Iapani Laloulu in the first two rounds. Then he has USC quarterback Jayden Maiava going in the third round:<\/p>\n

\u201c67) Las Vegas Raiders: Jayden Maiava, QB, USC<\/p>\n

The 2025 season has been as ugly as you could imagine for the Raiders, and it’s easier to list which positions haven’t been issues. QB, unfortunately, has not been one of them, as Geno Smith<\/a> has starkly regressed. Smith’s age and poor performance have Raiders fans already looking ahead. At first glance, the 2026 QB class is relatively sparse past the top three, but there are wild cards in the fold. At 6’4″, 230 pounds, Jayden Maiava is a prototypical gunslinger with a double-edged fearlessness to his game, but also definite potential with his leverage 1Q and easy velocity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Raiders fans would like to see the team draft a quarterback in the first round. But it wouldn’t hurt to land one on Day 2.<\/p>\n

Raiders Predicted to Draft Jayden Maiava in the Third Round<\/h2>\n

His Career Thus Far<\/h3>\n

Jayden Maiava attended three different high schools: Liberty (Henderson, Nevada), Sierra Vista (Las Vegas, Nevada), and Kaimuki (Honolulu, Hawaii). He earned All-League First Team honors as a senior at Liberty. That year, he threw for 2,027 yards and 24 touchdowns while adding three touchdowns on the ground.<\/sup><\/p>\n

Maiava then committed<\/a> to the University of Nevada (UNLV). He passed up offers from schools like Tennessee, Auburn, and Louisville.<\/p>\n

Maiava redshirted his first season at UNLV. The following year, he started all 14 games, passing for 3,085 yards and 17 touchdowns. He also rushed for 277 yards and three touchdowns. In addition, Maiava led UNLV to its most wins since the 1984 season and the school\u2019s first-ever appearance in the Mountain West Championship. He was named the 2023 Mountain West Freshman of the Year.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Maiava entered the transfer portal and transferred<\/a> to USC. He initially committed to the University of Georgia, but ultimately landed at USC. Maiava took over the starting role in the Trojans\u2019 final four games. That year, he passed for 1,201 yards and 11 touchdowns while rushing for 45 yards and four scores. He recorded 295 passing yards and four touchdowns in the 2024 Las Vegas Bowl. USC won the game 35-31.<\/p>\n

Maiava put together a great 2025 season. He threw for 3,431 yards, and 23 touchdowns while logging the second-best QB rating in the country (91.2). He hasn’t announced yet if he\u2019ll stay at USC or declare for the NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Should the Raiders Draft Him?<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Nov 17, 2025; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith (7) looks to pass downfield against the Dallas Cowboys during the second half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Cummings wrote, this has been an awful season for the Raiders and they have a lot of holes to fill.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas could use a top-five pick on a quarterback like Dante Moore<\/a> or Fernando Mendoza<\/a>. But as everybody knows, you can also land a productive signal-caller later on in the draft.<\/p>\n

Drafting Jayden Maiava (if he declares) makes sense for the Raiders. Geno Smith, who was traded<\/a> to Vegas last year, can serve as a bridge quarterback until Maiava is ready to take over.<\/p>\n

Maiava possesses arm talent, a quick release, and ability to create plays under pressure. Plus, he has the athleticism to escape pressure. So yes, the Raiders should take him.<\/p>\n

Main Image:Gary A. Vasquez – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mock draft has the Las Vegas Raiders taking USC quarterback Jayden Maiava in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":255428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6431,17],"tags":[33895,7399],"class_list":["post-257728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-teams","category-raiders","tag-jayden-maiava","tag-las-vegas-raiders-news"],"modified_by":"Mike Roberts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257728"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257793,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257728\/revisions\/257793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}