The Raiders intentionally concealed their interest in Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott going into this year’s draft, and he was clearly a player the team was excited about when they drafted him in the sixth round.
After the draft, the Raiders followed through on their plan to move Mellott to wide receiver, understanding it would take some time to develop him at a position he never played in college.
But after four months with the team, the Raiders cut Mellott and chose not to add him to the practice squad.
It wasn’t a surprise that Mellott was cut, but by not signing him to practice squad, the Raiders were essentially giving up on a player they knew wasn’t going to be ready in his first NFL season.
Raiders GM John Spytek said as much in his press conference this week.
“He’s a great kid,” Spytek said of Mellott. “He worked really, really hard to try to become [an] NFL wide receiver after being an FCS quarterback. I don’t think people understand quite how hard that is.”
But it was Spytek’s next serious of comments that seemed to be pointed at someone (or maybe more than one person?) still with the organization.
“I still believe in Tommy,” Spytek continued. “I think he’s got a really bright future, and I really hope that he finds a place where he can find maybe a little more patience from a roster standpoint.”
At face value, Spytek’s comments were a relatively generic, but isn’t he the GM who drafted Mellott understanding it was going to take time to develop him?
Spytek is overseeing a rebuild in Las Vegas and has four more years on his contract after the 2025 season. If anyone is in position to be patient with a player like Mellott, it ought to be Spytek.
So why did he make the comment?
All we can do is speculate, but a series of comments this week from the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore might offer a clue.
After the Raiders signed Amari Cooper on Monday, Bonsignore implied the head coach and GM might not have been in lockstep on the decision.
“I’m going to say this. I think this is a Pete Carroll move completely,” Bonsignore said of the Raiders signing Cooper. “There was probably a little bit of arm wrestling going on about this one. You have a veteran coach who wants to win right now. Amari Cooper is going to come in and whether he makes the Raiders better, we’re going to find out.”
“I’m not going to say that everybody in that building was gung-ho about this move, but I do believe… if the head coach wants him and he’s like, ‘This is one that I really want’… sometimes as a general manager, as an organization, as that side of the building, you side with your head coach, whether it’s part of your master plan or goes against kind of what you’re trying to do in terms of rebuilding this roster. I think this is one that gave the head coach and you just move on.”
Again, it’s only speculation, but is it possible that Spytek wanted to invest more time in Mellott, but his head coach was more focused on the short term?
Given what Bonsignore said about the Cooper signing, it’s fair to wonder if Spytek was taking a gentle jab at Carroll with his comments on Mellott landing on a roster with “a little more patience” than what the Raiders were willing to offer.
In a related note, reports on Mellott from training camp weren’t particularly flattering over the last few weeks, and it’s possible the Raiders just whiffed on the pick.
In fact, draft insider Tony Pauline said it a few months ago. The Raiders were high on Mellott, but there were a lot of teams that were not.
“Mellott was a surprise selection, as few teams had a draftable grade on him,” Pauline said in May.
Based on the look of things in the last week of August, it would seem the rest of the league got it right on Mellott – but the rookie QB/WR has plenty of time to prove them wrong.
x: @raidersbeat
At the very least, Sellout, instead of Kenny Pickett could have been the practice squads third string quarterback. Dysfunctional franchise continued…
This regime is becoming very disheartening.
Because they cut a sixth rounder? Lol. What?!!!
He was a sixth round pick. Nothing dysfunctional about cutting a sixth round pick. Lol
It’s almost as if there is a conspiracy to stay mediocre. I’m now wondering, really, if there are behind the scenes agreements on who should get who on some picks. Serious. It’s amazing how the Raiders draft was so highly rated by many. If you scrutinize who they could have had, vs who they picked, many picks could have been way better, position wise and player wise.
He was a sixth round pick. You can’t be serious with this negativity over a guy who was drafted in a round that statistically doesn’t make it. Can’t scrutinize that many picks could have been better when none of the players have played a real nfl game yet. Come on man.
Not just cutting him but sounds like GM and coach not on same page. Picking up Pickett for a fifth when he would have been cut, they could have signed other qbs on the cheap without giving up anything. They got rid of Bennett with next to nothing in return, dissing Myers, signed Cooper and it sounds like the GM wasn’t really on board with it. Williams debacle, Cam Miller waived and kept injured O’Connell, JPJ not starting at center list goes on and on.