According to an anonymous league evaluator (whatever the heck that is), the Raiders found two of the better cornerbacks the 2020 draft had to offer.
Granted, an anonymous “evaluator” can be about anyone, but this particular evaluator told The Athletic’s Mike Sando that he is high on both of the Raiders new additions to their secondary.
“An evaluator called fourth-round corner Amik Robertson his most undervalued player in the draft,” Sando wrote this week in The Athletic. “This evaluator also liked Arnette. Under the broad category of character, which includes maturity and the perceived likelihood a player might encounter complications off the field regardless of his actual character, some execs questioned whether Las Vegas was an ideal destination for Arnette and Bowden.”
The same evaluator (or was this executive type different from the evaluator?) told Sando that he believed teams were hoping to jump on Arnette in the second round of the draft and it was Arnette’s off-field concerns that took him out of the first round for some teams.
“I got the sense with Arnette that no one was going to take him high because of some of those concerns,” Sando was told by the exec. “Everybody realizes he is a good player and I think a lot of people just hoped they would have been able to get him in the second round.”
Whoever the evaluator and/or executive happened to be, it sounds like he (or they) are higher on Arnette than many of the draft “experts” in the media.
As for Robertson, there hasn’t been anyone critical of that pick. He’s a elite athlete and high character individual by all accounts. Some even think Robertson might be talented enough to play cornerback on the outside, despite being just a shade over 5’8” tall.
Considering their tough luck drafting cornerbacks in recent years (with the exception of Trayvon Mullen) it would be nice to see the Raiders be rewarded for gambling on a cornerback… because leading up to Mullen, Oakland was the place where young cornerbacks went to watch their careers evaporate. Maybe a change in scenery and a new city will break the cycle.
On a final note, what was it about Arnette’s character that was so unpalatable for teams to give him a better draft grade?
A disagreement with a coach?
Considering that coach was rumored to be former Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano, maybe we’ll give Arnette the benefit of the doubt on that one.
twitter: @raidersbeat
