Responses to Las Vegas Raiders first-round draft pick is hilarious

On Thursday night, the Las Vegas Raiders decided to mess up the first round of the National Football League’s first-year player draft by going for the first real reach at No. 17 overall when they selected Alex Leatherwood from the University of Alabama.

Look, to be clear, no one would ever question Leatherwood’s talent. He’s likely going to be a very solid pro player and pass protector for an offensive line that’s been remade this offseason with moves to jettison veterans like Trent Brown (back to the New England Patriots) and Rodney Hudson (traded to the Arizona Cardinals). Leatherwood played at the highest level of college football and comes with great experience, is well-coached, and has a pro-ready frame and athleticism.

That said, Leatherwood was also often mocked much lower than this—even well into Day 2—and the Raiders left a lot more heralded talent on draft boards by making the deal. NFL.com has his pro player comparison as Cameron Erving, which Chiefs Kingdom will tell you is everything you need to know about why people might have ridiculed the pick, which was considered a reach by pretty much the entire internet here. Leatherwood might be versatile, but if that doesn’t help a player stand out at any one position, then it’s not good pick in the long run.

Anyway, the reason we bring all of this up is because the internet really responded well to the Raiders pick. It was hilarious to watch the takes come across the Twitter feed. And just in case you think it was everyone outside of Sin City with the mean takes toward a rival team, we’ll just start with this classic right there.

Of course, the barbs just kept coming from all around.

For many draft analysts, the value here at No. 17 overall was just a head-scratcher for Raiders general manager Mike Mayock.

This was also fun to see Chiefs fans putting Raiders faithful in their place at the actual draft in Cleveland.

In some ways, we should probably feel bad for Raiders fans knowing that it’s not going to get any better in the AFC West anytime soon. This fan understands it well and perhaps sums up these responses as good as anyone.

We’re sorry, Raiders fans. We’re sorry.