The Oakland Raiders 2015 Draft Thread

Quake Griffin · Post #1 » by **Quake Griffin** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:13 pm

Amari Cooper?
Kevin White?
Leonard Williams?
Dante Fowler?

What are our most glaring need?
Pass Rusher?
WR?
RG?

Discuss.

I'll open this discussion by asking if anybody taken a look at Vic Beasley? He goes about 6'3" 246
Explosive as hell but he's tiny.
He wouldn't work in a 4-3 IMO. But he could work in a 3-4. I mean we have two NTs on our team.
He's all over on mocks from top 10s to the 20s. Main point being we can trade down, get picks and potentially get a great edge rusher.

RoyalMajesty · Post #2 » by **RoyalMajesty** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:05 pm

*******2015 Raiders Mock Draft*******

1st) WR/Amari Cooper/6-1/210lbs/21 from Alabama

2nd) CB/Marcus Peters/6-0/195lbs/22 from Washington

3rd) DE/Preston Smith/6-5/270lbs/23 from Mississippi St.

4th) DT/Marcus Hardison/6-3/300lbs/23 from Arizona St.

5th) DE/Markus Golden/6-2/260lbs/2? from Missouri

6th) SS/Sam Carter/6-0/215lbs/2? from TCU

7th) LG/Jarvis Harrison/6-4/330lbs/24 from Texas A&M

RoyalMajesty · Post #3 » by **RoyalMajesty** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:05 pm

QB #1=Derek Carr
QB #2=Christian Ponder
QB #3=Matt McGloin

WR #1=Greg Jennings????? (Free Agency)
WR #2=Amari Cooper (1st Round)
WR #3=Rod Streater
WR #4=James Jones
WR #5=Andre Holmes
WR #6=Brice Butler

TE #1=Mychal Rivera
TE #2=Lee Smith
TE #3=Nick Kasa

RB #1=Latavius Murray
RB #2=Roy Helu Jr.
RB #3=Trent Richardson

FB #1=Marcel Reece

LT=Donald Penn & Menelik Watson
LG=Gabe Jackson & Jarvis Harrison (7th Round)
C=Rodney Hudson
RG=Stefen Wisniewski (Resign) & Kevin Boothe
RT=Austin Howard & Khalif Barnes

RoyalMajesty · Post #4 » by **RoyalMajesty** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:07 pm

LDE=Justin Tuck & Markus Golden (5th Round)
DT=Justin Ellis & Marcus Hardison (4th Round)
DT=Dan Williams, Antonio Smith, Stacy McGee
RDE=Preston Smith (3rd Round) & Benson Mayowa

WLB=Sio Moore & Malcolm Smith
MLB=Curtis Lofton & Ray-Ray Armstrong
SLB=Khalil Mack & Miles Burris

CB #1=D.J. Hayden
CB #2=Marcus Peters (2nd Round)
CB #3=T.J. Carrie
CB #4=Keith McGill
CB #5=James Dockery
CB #6=Taiwan Jones

SS=Charles Woodson/Nate Allen & Sam Carter (6th Round)
FS=Nate Allen/Charles Woodson & Brandian Ross

RoyalMajesty · Post #5 » by **RoyalMajesty** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:08 pm

PK=Sebastian Janikowski
P=Marquette King
LS=Jon Condo

Quake Griffin · Post #6 » by **Quake Griffin** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:24 pm

why wait until the 3rd to address DE?

Why address CB so early?
isn't Peters a bad actor?

RoyalMajesty · Post #7 » by **RoyalMajesty** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:06 pm

Quake Griffin wrote:why wait until the 3rd to address DE?

Why address CB so early?
isn't Peters a bad actor?

Because we didn't sign any quality CBs from Free Agency, there's no quality CBs now that we're late into Free Agency, and D.J. Hayden can't stay healthy. Marcus Peters is considered by some the best cover CB in the NFL Draft that doesn't mind sticking his nose in the run. He HAD character issues because of the new coaching staff this season at Washington by Chris Petersen and his Boise State coaching staff. I didn't hear Marcus Peters having a problem the previous years at Washington so I'll give him a pass. If D.J. Hayden gets hurt again, which is most likely, our CB unit is going to have problems all season long with a division with Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, and Alex Smith.

The DE is a weakness on this team no doubt, but I'm going with the best players available. You always go with the best players available over needs. It happens that WR-Amari Cooper is the best player available at #4 in the 1st Round of the 2015 NFL Draft and is also a need of ours. It also happens that CB-Marcus Peters is the best player available at #35 or #36 in the 2nd Round of the 2015 NFL Draft and is also a need of ours. It's not like I'm ignoring the DE position because I addressed the position with DE-Preston Smith from Mississippi St. in the 3rd Round of the 2015 NFL Draft who had a great week at the Senior Bowl playing against some of the best of the best from the 2015 NFL Draft and also, addressed the position with DE-Markus Golden from Missouri in the 5th Round of the 2015 NFL Draft who finally got some time to shine after being in the shadows of Michael Sam, Kony Ealy, and even Shane Ray. I also added Marcus Hardison from Arizona St. who is a very talented, playmaking DT in the 4th Round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Our pass rush improves already by adding these three young, talented, playmaking players.

Post #8 » by **FNQ** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:46 am

Quake Griffin wrote:why wait until the 3rd to address DE?

Why address CB so early?
isn't Peters a bad actor?

You wouldn't
You wouldn't
No, he's a bad character.

Preston Smith has a chance to not be there at 35, btw. Almost all projected picks are about 1-2 rounds later than they are projected to go in in-depth mocks. I haven't seen Golden get out of the 3rd of any of those mocks, or Harrison last past the 4th.

An actual interesting name to watch: WR Josh Harper, from Fresno St. Looks like a Rod Streater type, with better hands. I'm also partial to the Stanford WR, Ty Montgomery. High character, 4th WR/return man style player who is dangerous with the ball in his hands.. if he can catch it. Good day 3 prospect. I personally don't want 4 WR from last year to return: Butler and Streater are the only 2 I really want back anyways.

Post #9 » by **FNQ** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 5:07 am

My mock:

After PHI trades Bradford and some pick for #12
#12 + #20 + a day 3 pick for #4

#12 Alvin Dupree DE/OLB
#20 Breshard Perriman WR
#35 Denzel Perriman MLB
#68 AJ Cann, G
#102 Chris Hackett, S
#140 Chris Conley, WR

But I think pretty much all of them are underrated by general mocks right now.. I wouldn't be surprised if only one or two are actually there at those respective picks.

Post #10 » by **FNQ** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:26 pm

One other thing to think about:

The highest pick we can acquire from a team coveting Mariota is likely the #12 pick. Now consider which teams are in between 4 and 12: WAS, NYJ, CHI, ATL, NYG, STL, MIN.

Only one of those teams has WR as a pressing need: St. Louis.

Would you take the risk of trading the 4 for 12 and 19, and hopefully land one of Amari Cooper or Kevin White with the #12? The downside obviously being that someone could trade up and land ahead of us, in which case we could go with the best available DE @ 12, and then best available WR at 19.

Quake Griffin · Post #11 » by **Quake Griffin** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 1:50 pm

McShay Mock 4.0

Has
Jameis, 1
Mariota, 2
Amari going NUMBER THREE to Jax
and us taking Leonard Williams.
Fowler 5th to Was.

Walter Football (I wouldn't consider him/ them gospel but I follow how their mock moves every few days or so) says Leonard Williams is kinda like Bridgewater (?)…the media loves him but teams don't. Go figure.

Quake Griffin · Post #12 » by **Quake Griffin** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:06 pm

FireNellieQuick wrote:Would you take the risk of trading the 4 for 12 and 19, and hopefully land one of Amari Cooper or Kevin White with the #12? The downside obviously being that someone could trade up and land ahead of us, in which case we could go with the best available DE @ 12, and then best available WR at 19.

Question about that…

See….if Leonard Williams drops to us, many are of the mind that we take him no matter what AKA BPA AKA don't address any of our needs in the 1st round.

If we trade to 12 and 19…why wouldn't we go BPA? Seems like we should be more inclined to.
I think it could be dangerous to try and force a DE and WR at those slots. Chances are Dupree COULD be BPA at #12 but at which WR would be BPA or even near at 19?

Btw, I'd want a 3rd pick in that deal.
Our 4th for 12th, 19th and a 5th.

Post #13 » by **FNQ** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:14 pm

I'd argue that Leonard Williams does fill a need... he can play end. More of a run stopper / sometimes pass rushing DE (I'm thinking a more pass rushing version of Ngata).. so he can fill in there until we can put him at a more natural spot of DT. We would then be committing to the 4-3 though, which I'm fine with, considering our dearth of MLB.

We can go BPA, I'm usually in favor of that... but like you said, these guys COULD be the BPA at 19. I honestly don't know, I haven't really been looking at prospects that we're unlikely to get.

That all said, if we traded down and got #12/19, and Kevin White or Cooper was there at 12.. wouldn't that definitely be BPA?

Post #14 » by **FNQ** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:21 pm

also, re: Rams... supposedly they are interested in drafting a QB (good move, Foles sucks). They have a really solid team, so trading up for a QB they like makes a lot of sense.

If we only move down to #10, I'd imagine there's a really good chance we get one of the top 2 WR. Their 2nd and 4th round picks, + a 2nd next year, might be enough to get me interested.

Post #15 » by **FNQ** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:17 pm

The more I think about it, I see us having 3 options:

#1 - Draft Big Cat Leonard Williams at 4
#2 - Trade with PHI/CLE/STL/SD/NYJ so they can draft Mariota at 4. I do believe that there is a limit to how far we'll trade down, and I believe that limit is around #12.
#3 - If both Mariota and Big Cat are off the board, draft Dante Fowler Jr or Vic Beasley

I don't believe the Raiders will use a 1st rd pick on a WR. For one, teams that do so never really have sustained success. Secondly, we have some great building blocks on defense. Mack is a monster, and all of Jelly/Sio/Hayden have flashed some serious upside. Building an elite defense should be prioritized more than achieving balance early on, because its much harder to make the leap from good to elite than from bad to good. And finally, consider our decision makers. McKenzie and JDR are both defensive-based execs. It stands to reason that their #1 priority will be to make the defense into a top unit.

I'm fine with this. As more and more #s come out, Kevin White's luster is fading. Amari Cooper is a fine player, but is just valued too highly for a WR, and has some bust potential, which to me is unforgiveable for a top 5 draft pick WR. Fowler is a high floor/medium ceiling type DE that should be a consistent +. Beasley is a mammoth upside LEO type. For those unfamiliar with the LEO, it's essentially a hybrid DE/OLB that is either a pass rusher or a space defender (both in run and pass).

Ultimately, in my eyes, drafting a WR at 4 would be a colossal failure. And worst case scenario would be Kevin White at 4.

Post #16 » by **FNQ** » Thu Apr 2, 2015 10:58 pm

Bleacher Report (fwiw) reporting that 9ers may be interested in moving up for A. Cooper... would we be willing to move down that far?

Post #17 » by **FNQ** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 7:08 pm

Not a fan of ESPN's new blog format, since it shows all articles, but check out Williamson's newest blog about trade scenarios with the Cleveland Browns:
http://espn.go.com/blog/oakland-raiders

I wouldn’t be shocked if the Browns ask for No. 4 and No. 68 from Oakland for No. 12 and No. 19. In that scenario the Raiders’ picks in the first three rounds would be No. 12, 19 and 35 instead of No. 4, 35 and 68.

GoRapstheoriginal · Post #18 » by **GoRapstheoriginal** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 7:49 pm

Ya, ditto, since they redid the whole/all of the espn.com site. It has been taking some time getting used to..

I have been advocating trading the pick to get multiple picks in the 1st round so, I am still sticking to that position.
(because we have to many/multiple holes to fill on both sides of the ball, that's why).

Quake Griffin · Post #19 » by **Quake Griffin** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 9:48 pm

FireNellieQuick wrote:Not a fan of ESPN's new blog format, since it shows all articles, but check out Williamson's newest blog about trade scenarios with the Cleveland Browns:
http://espn.go.com/blog/oakland-raiders

I wouldn’t be shocked if the Browns ask for No. 4 and No. 68 from Oakland for No. 12 and No. 19. In that scenario the Raiders’ picks in the first three rounds would be No. 12, 19 and 35 instead of No. 4, 35 and 68.

That's stupid. The objective in trading back is to get more picks to fill in the holes we have, not to have the same amount of picks.

When they gave Buffalo the #4 slot last year, they got 2 firsts back and a fourth.
No way they're getting anything more than the 4th pick if I'm doing the deal.
they're lucky we don't ask for 12,19 and a late rounder.

Post #20 » by **FNQ** » Tue Apr 7, 2015 10:00 pm

Im willing to do 4/4th rder for 12/19.. But thats about it. And there would be more picks needed on their end too. At least a day 3 pick and a 2016 day 2 pick.

Williamson is flat out not a fan of ours, and likes playing up negative side to the Raiders. The more I see his articles and interactions on twitter (esp. when he's proven wrong), the less I like him.

Citing the exceptionally weak 2013 draft as a means for saying we should move down 8 spots in the 1st to allow the Browns a franchise QB, while only moving up 2 rounds as payment, is just baffling.