While adding an edge defender wasn’t a pressing or immediate need for the Las Vegas Raiders, general manager John Spytek went with a “best player available” approach to the third round of the 2026 NFL draft, selecting former Auburn pass-rusher Keyron Crawford 67th overall.
Crawford comes from a basketball background and didn’t start playing football until his senior year of high school. The lack of experience on the gridiron shows up on tape as he’s still raw and developing. However, the Arkansas State transfer is also an impressive athlete with a lot of potential to become a quality edge rusher in the league and is coming off a strong campaign.
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According to Pro Football Focus, the Auburn product ranked seventh among SEC edges with 43 pressures and was fifth with an 18.3 percent pass-rush win rate, which includes five sacks and an impressive 12 quarterback hits. Crawford is still learning how to use and be more consistent with his hand for that production to translate to the next level, but the tape highlights how his athletic ability makes him a high-upside prospect.
While line games weren’t a big part of Crawford’s game at Auburn, it is something that defensive coordinator Rob Leonard will likely look to take advantage of, given the third-round pick’s combination of quickness and change of direction skills.
He’s executing an E/T stunt here, where he’s going to be the penetrator and attack the left guard. However, rather than just b-lining to the guard off the snap, Crawford does a good job of setting the game up by working vertically with his first two steps. That gets the left tackle to widen with him and start working for depth, widening the pass-rush lane in the B-Gap.
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Then, the movement skills referenced above come into play, as the former Tiger plants his outside foot in the ground and beats the tackle across the tackle’s face on his third step. But what makes this rep really impressive is that he gets into the B-gap so quickly that the left guard doesn’t have enough time to react, barely touching the pass-rusher en route to the quarterback for a sack.
Crawford didn’t perform any athletic testing during the pre-draft process. So unfortunately, there’s no 40-yard dash or 10-yard split time to verify how fast his get-off is. But he shows the ability to win with speed around the edge on tape.
He manages to win the foot race on this rep, beating the left tackle to the spot in the backfield. On top of that, the pass-rusher shows off impressive bend to turn a tight corner at the top of the rush and avoid getting washed past the quarterback. The problem is that the quarterback had plenty of room to step up in the pocket and get the ball out before Crawford could get there for the sack.
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That also touches on where the third-round pick has room for growth with his use of hands. He misses with the cross-chop, and while he does a decent job of finishing with a rip move, the tackle can stay attached to Crawford’s body to prevent the clean win. So, the offensive lineman loses the foot race but wins the hand fight to give the quarterback enough time to get the pass off without getting hit.
Now, we’ll get an example of the former hooper’s basketball background showing up on the football field, and a better use of hands.
Crawford does have some nuance to his pass-rush skills, as he’s good at setting up his moves. Notice how he stems toward the inside off the line of scrimmage and gets to square on the right tackle. That gets the tackle to stop working for width and creates a shorter edge to set up the outside move. Then, the basketball skills come into play, hitting a euro step to get outside of the lineman and win with a cross-chop.
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There’s still room for improvement, but Crawford lands the chop this time and does a solid job of defeating the blocker’s hands. If we’re getting nit-picky, he can be more violent and exaggerate the finish or follow through on the chop to get the tackle off-balance and have an even cleaner win. However, he does his job here, and this is certainly an encouraging rep.
The only problem with this play is that the corner gets beaten pretty badly, so the ball is out quickly for an explosive play. But, obviously, that’s not what we’re concerned about here.
Building on the section above, this is the most encouraging rep when it comes to the 2025 third-team All-SEC performer’s use of hands.
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First, Crawford uses his inside hand/arm to get the right tackle to throw his punch by using a one-arm stab move. Once the tackle takes the bait, the edge-rusher then gets his outside hand involved to knock the tackle’s hands/arms down and get the tackle off-balance.
That creates a short edge, and the third-round pick shows off the bend again to make a 90-degree turn and finish with a sack. For a good example of the latter, take a look at the difference between Crawford’s shin angle when he clears the offensive lineman versus No. 3’s on the other side of the line.
To be clear, it will probably be a year or two until Crawford becomes an every-down player, and he may never blossom into a plus-run defender. But he did show growth in college, improving his PFF run defense grade every season, culminating with a solid 73.9 mark in 2025. Additionally, the rep above provides some encouragement for him to improve in this phase of the game.
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Missouri runs inside zone with split flow action in the backfield from the tight end. Since the playside 3-technique defensive tackle (No. 47) slants into the A-gap and the WILL linebacker (No. 17) attacks the other A-gap post-snap, the running back looks to bounce outside. Meanwhile, Crawford shows off some physicality by taking the fight to the left tackle to close the B-gap, so the back has to bounce even further outside.
Additionally, Crawford does a great job of taking on the block with his hands. That allows him to get extension and escape from the offensive lineman when the running back tries to run around the edge. As a result, he’s in a perfect spot to make the tackle right at the line of scrimmage.
Overall, Spytek took a risk by drafting a developmental player with a Top 75 pick, and there’s a good chance the Auburn product has a rookie season similar to 2025 third-round picks Caleb Rogers and Charles Grant with how the roster is currently constructed.
Between Maxx Crosby, Kwity Paye and Malcolm Koonce, edge defender is the deepest position group on the Raiders’ roster. So, there may not be many opportunities for Crawford to get playing time in year one.
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That being said, Koonce is on a one-year deal, and Spytek has already agreed to trade Crosby once, creating an opportunity for the 67th pick to take on a bigger role in 2027 and beyond. In other words, this selection was made with the future in mind.
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