Former Raiders GM Tom Telesco took some criticism when he drafted Brock Bowers with the no. 13 pick in last year’s draft, but the decision turned out to be a good one.
Bowers was a first-team All Pro in his rookie year and is already one of the cornerstones of the team at the ripe young age of 22.
It’s no secret that Telesco was taking offers for the 13th pick with Bowers on the board and the team believed to be pushing the hardest for Bowers was the Los Angeles Rams.
Based on a released conversation during the draft between the Rams and the Jets, it’s a safe assumption that the Raiders turned down picks 19 and 52 for the 13th pick they used on Bowers.
For the first time publicly, Telesco talked this week about the Raiders’ decision to take Bowers, and it sounds like the University of Georgia tight end was not initially one of their top targets leading up to the draft.
“We preferred to take a premium position in the first round of the draft and on the pay scale, tight ends don’t fit in that group. [Drafting Brock Bowers] was something he had kind of pushed to the side even though we knew how good he was,” Telesco said on the Check the Mic podcast.
“[But] as we got later in the process, the way I looked at it, what he could bring to our offense, what he could do, I kind of went off the script a little bit and decided to go that route and I’m glad we did. He’s an outstanding player.”
Obviously, the thinking in the Raiders’ building changed significantly because they turned down significant trade offer for the opportunity to draft Bowers.
Telesco also acknowledged that Jayden Daniels was the quarterback the Raiders really wanted.
Jayden Daniels. That would have been easy,” Telesco said. “But then when we got into J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix and Michael Penix, as far as trading up for those guys, that I was not as much into. To give up that many assets, because we were going to have to give up a lot of draft picks. We needed as many as possible to try to build up the team. So that would have been a hard move to make to trade up for one of those quarterbacks… other than Jayden Daniels that was going to be a non-starter.
Telesco pointed to injury concerns around Penix as a concern but added that drafting Nix was in consideration.
“Bo Nix, his background of work, his durability, his movement skills. That one was interesting, and he’s gone to the perfect team. That would have been a good possibility,” Telesco said.
x: @raidersbeat
Telesco got a bit of a raw deal. His one draft with the Raiders was a good one, with an All Pro in round 1, 2 starting caliber players on Day 2, and potentially another starter on Day 3 with Richardson. Obviously Minishew was a flop, but nothing in his career prior to last year suggested he’d be that bad.
Telesco’s biggest mistake was allowing himself to be in a situation where he was tied to AP. Might have scouted that situation a bit better.
He got a really bad deal. Brady just wanted to hire his buddy. We could’ve just kept everyone & throw cash @ Chip, or just keep Scott Turner.
You can still do trade with Seattle for Geno.
Telesco said something good here too. He values “premium” positions & next draft he could’ve sold the farm to move up in the draft.
Telesco was a terrible hire. AP was a terrible hire. Not re-signing J.Jacobs was terrible. Not hiring Kingsbury and settling for Getsy was terrible. Minshew was a terrible starting QB. Wilkins was a terrible investment. Re-signing A.James was terrible. The situation with D.Adams was terrible (due to McDaniels but AP didn’t help). We weren’t very competitive last year. Bowers is more of a WR than TE. The OL was terrible. Z.White as Jacobs replacement was terrible. On and on it can go. Offense and defense. Both Telesco and AP were fired for obvious reasons, they collectively made one bad decision after another. I’m not a huge fan of letting Brady pick his old buddy to GM or settling for a former really good head coach. I figure our record will be better this year due to the schedule. Jeanty better come in as an All-Pro seeing how he got picked top 10. Geno better pick up his game as well seeing how we threw a 3rd rounder for him.
Jacob’s averaged 3.5 yards per carry his last year with the Raiders behind bad run blocking. RBs tend to have short careers, and Jacob’s had racked up injuries. I think it was entirely reasonable to believe that Jacobs’ time as a guy who can succeed despite bad circumstances was over. He had a really nice bounce back year in Green Bay, but would be have been nearly as effective for the Raiders? Will he continue to be effective if he’s put in a bad situation? And how much does any of it matter when the Raiders went 4-13. Even if he had the same year for the Raiders, he wasn’t going to elevate them much.
Telesco got us the best draft we’ve had in like 20 years. He also wanted to trade the farm for Jayden Daniels so they had the right guy targeted.
He obviously should have signed Darnold over Minshew but Patriot West screwed up our quarterback situation.
Patriot West left AP/Telesco with absolutely nothing. Adams was a waste of 2 high picks & Telesco got us a great pick for a bust. Let’s not forget the Tyree/Mayer selection. You can’t predict the injury to Wilkins but if Patriot West does the obvious & drafts Jalen Carter we’d be better off.
Patriot West screwed this franchise…and we are gonna be looking for a new HC in 3 years anyway.
BTW, when Mark fires a GM/HC after 1 year it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence not to mention he stopped the Kingsbury hiring.
Telesco and AP got what they deserved. Fired! Both made horrible decisions and that’s not the expectation when hiring a GM and HC. The whole Min-**** deal was the bow on top of the pile of **** they built.