The Raiders have high hopes for 4th-round pick Jermod McCoy, but the biggest factor in McCoy’s success this year is most likely the status of his knee.
Going into the draft, many considered McCoy a top 10 player in the draft, but fears over a knee injury he suffered 15 months ago, led to him falling to the Raiders in the fourth round.
According to the California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore, there were other teams looking to take McCoy in the fourth round, but Raider fans still hold their breath whenever the rookie cornerback misses a practice.
There isn’t a lot of precedent for knee plug procedures in the NFL, and no one knows how McCoy’s knee is going to hold up. But according to Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when McCoy isn’t on the practice field.
“Didn’t see Jamad McCoy [at OTAs]… Whenever I don’t see Jamad McCoy, I never really think twice about it because we know he’s on a plan to get him to the starting blocks,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast.
“They’re going to have him out there on the field a certain amount of time. They’re going to go through how many steps he takes every single day. There’s a full plan that Alex Guerrero and company has in place for Jermod McCoy. So whenever I don’t see him out there, I just figure it’s part of the plan. He’s working where he needs to be working and working himself to being able to participate.”
There have been internet rumors that McCoy suffered a minor setback, but no credible sources have hinted at anything like that.
As Myers pointed out. the Raiders have a very specific plan for McCoy, and every indication is that they expect him to be on the field in his first season.
McCoy has made an impression during Raiders’ offseason activities
Silver & Black Sports Network’s Jesse Merrick said last month that there is already something noticeable about the way McCoy carries himself on the field.
“Anybody that’s been around athletes knows this, and all these guys that play are athletes, but you can just tell how springy guys are and the way they walk. That’s one of those things that stands out a lot of times. And you watch [McCoy] and you’re just like, ‘Yeah, I can tell he’s a freak of nature athlete,’” Merrick said Raider Nation Radio’s JT the Brick Show.
“As I’m watching him, I’m sitting there trying to see like, okay, where does he look hampered by this knee? Because it is such a big deal in the storyline. And yes, they’re keeping him on a pitch count and kind of limiting what he’s doing and everything like that. But if you had no idea that he had this knee problem, you wouldn’t notice it out there on the field,” Merrick continued.
“I don’t say that to say ‘Oh, he’s ready to go now.’ Temper expectations [and] see what it looks like over the course of a really big workload. But he does look like a dude where you watch him and you’re like, ‘Okay, I can see the movement skills. I can see the fluidity and just like how easy it is for him to reach that top gear.’ So I’m interested to see if and when we get a chance to look at this kid in one-on-one type situations and I think the rest of the guys in that room are too.”
“I mean, you heard him at the press conference yesterday saying that he looks like the guy they saw on film. So if it transpires to be that, this is not a sensational statement to make. [If] he is that guy that they think he is, that’s going to completely transform that cornerback room…”