It's extremely common for NFL teams to hype up the trade inquiries they are receiving for a draft pick to increase the offers they might receive, but the Las Vegas Raiders took that to an extreme level leading up to the 2025 draft.

On the latest episode of the Scoop City podcast (starts at 10:35 mark), The Athletic's Dianna Russini explained the Raiders made up the story about general manager John Spytek's son leaving the family if they didn't draft Ashton Jeanty.

The explanation from Russini was the Raiders were trying to boost the trade value of the pick by essentially telling everyone they were taking Jeanty, who they wound up selecting anyway at No. 6 overall.

During an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio in the weeks leading up to the draft, Spytek joked his oldest son made it clear he "was walking out of the family" if Jeanty wasn't the Raiders' first-round pick.

While it seemed like a funny line at the time, thinking about it now makes it patently obvious the Raiders were telegraphing their plan. It's virtually impossible to get anyone from any team to publicly say anything that specific about a player leading up to the draft.

It was widely assumed for weeks that Cam Ward was going to be the No. 1 pick, but the Tennessee Titans didn't say until two days before the start of the draft they were staying in that spot.

Even while saying they weren't going to trade out of the pick, the Titans still didn't confirm they were taking Ward until the selection was made.

Things ultimately worked out how the Raiders wanted, but there may have been some panic in the days leading up to the draft that Jeanty wouldn't be on the board. There was a lot of late speculation about the Jacksonville Jaguars taking the Boise State standout with the fifth pick.

Instead, the Jaguars wound up trading with the Cleveland Browns to select Travis Hunter at No. 2. Jeanty fell into the Raiders' lap and they selected him, presumably making Spytek's son very happy even if he wasn't really going to consider leaving the family.