The Raiders are two days from entering arguably the team’s most pivotal draft since 2019, and on Thursday all eyes in Las Vegas will be on the first pick and former University of Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
The Raiders will walk away from the 2026 draft with a franchise quarterback, but in 2019 Jon Gruden and company were sitting on 28-year-old Derek Carr at quarterback and three first-round picks.
At the time, Gruden had just traded away Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper to acquire two additional first-round picks and also had their own pick (no. 4 overall) after finishing the 2018 season with a 4-12 record.
It was a draft the Raiders couldn’t afford to come up short, and after leaving the first round with Clelin Ferrell, Josh Jacobs and Johnathan Abram, most would agree that’s exactly what they did – at least with their premium picks.
This week, former Raiders GM Mike Mayock talked about the 2019 draft and acknowledged that he “messed up” the fourth pick by taking Ferrell instead of someone with more potential.
“I think if you’re picking in the top 10 or more specifically the top 5, you’re looking for difference makers. And I’ll offer the caveat that I made a huge mistake in my first year [as GM of the Raiders] because I went with what I was considering a safe double rather than looking for a triple or a home run,” Mayock said on Sirius XM Radio.
“We took Cle Ferrell. It was more like a late first round pick [or] second round pick kind of guy but was going to be a good [player]. He’s still in the league. He’s still a good player. But at the end of the day I couldn’t move up. I tried. I couldn’t move down. I tried. And that pick I should have taken for instance Josh [Hines-] Allen who ended up going to Jacksonville at 7.”
“At the end of the day, you need a difference maker. You got to be careful what that fine line is between just going with a solid guy, depending on the draft year and who’s available, you can go to a different position, but we didn’t feel like there was value at some of the other positions that particular year. So at the end of the day what I’m saying is I messed up. Bottom line.”
To his credit, Mayock turned around in the fourth round and drafted Maxx Crosby in 2019, and it was clear from the start that Crosby was going to be a better player than Ferrell.
Earlier this month, a report at The Athletic talked about the arrival of Crosby and said he was outplaying Ferrell “every single day” as a rookie in OTAs and training camp.
“The Raiders had a stash of premium picks ahead of the 2019 draft: three first-rounders and a fourth inside the top 40. It should have been the foundation of a rebuild. It wasn’t,” The Athletic’s Zak Keefer wrote two weeks ago.
“The Raiders missed badly with their first selection, gambling on Clemson edge Clelin Ferrell fourth overall despite considerable pushback in the building,” Keefer continued. “The grades were all over the board on him, from the scouts to the coaches,” [former defensive coordinator Paul] Guenther said. The original plan had been to trade back and grab Ferrell later in the first round, but on the clock, the Raiders panicked. By August, the staff was starting to grow nervous. “We had this fourth-rounder out of Eastern Michigan outplaying the No. 4 pick in the draft every single day,” one source said. Indeed, that fourth-rounder, Crosby, remains the shrewdest pick the Raiders made in a decade.”
“Of those four picks inside the top 40, only running back Josh Jacobs — whom Mayock had to convince Gruden to come around on, according to some in the room — proved a hit. By the third day of the draft, the coach’s interest waned. “Gruden basically wasn’t even around for that part,” one source said. It’s when Mayock did some of his best work: Crosby in the fourth, tight end Foster Moreau 31 picks later, wideout Hunter Renfrow in the fifth.”
For what it’s worth, Mayock went on record a year ago offering the player he believed the Raiders should take with the no. 6 pick in the 2025 draft.
“We drafted Josh Jacobs there, which was kind of the perfect fit for Jon Gruden and what he wanted to do,” Mayock said prior to last year’s darft. “I think Ashton Jeanty from Boise State would be an ideal fit for what Pete Carroll wants to do. [In Seattle] Pete always ran the football downhill, physical, used play action with Russell Wilson. That was their identity, so I love the Ashton Jeanty fit there.”
Jeanty, of course, ended up being John Spytek’s first pick as GM of the Raiders and while Jeanty didn’t have huge numbers in his rookie season, there were a host of less-than-ideal situations around the team that were outside of his control.
Looking ahead, with Klint Kubiak on the sideline and a new coaching staff in place, a breakout season from Jeanty in his second NFL season shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
x: @raidersbeat
REVISED DRAFT BASED ON NEW PROJECTIONS….
1. FERNANDO MENDOZA
2. DANI DENNIS-SUTTON
3. MIKE WASHINGTON JR.
4. KEVIN COLEMAN JR.
5. JUDE BOWRY
6. JAEDEN ROBERTS
7. ZANE DURANT
8. VJ PAYNE
9. ANDRE FULLER
10. ERIC GENTRY
I do not care what posts like these suggest everyone knows Mayock was a strawman. Gruden made every single call n Mayock had no say in anything. Why do you think he wanted McKenzie gone? – DUH. Gruden is a dump truck incapable of doing anything he is believed to have capacity for. Next to McDaniels Gruden is the biggest mistake made n it was made twice.
After further review, Richard, you are 100% accurate.
Richard would you like a list of coaches who were bigger mistakes than Jon Gruden? Stop me when I say a magic name. Mike White? Joe Bugel? Norv Turner? Art Shell?, Lane Kiffin? Tom Cable? Hue Jackson? Tony Sparano? Dennis Allen? C’mon hater. I wouldn’t say Gruden was a mistake both times. The Gruden renunion, unchecked in his second term was not looking great, but even that team got in the playoffs, lost a close game to the SB participant that season.
That’s not something to dismiss when it’s been twenty years. In fact that was a decent day in this Raider household, we played well almost stole that game. His first tenure was the the last competitive multiple good seasons team we had. Yes, I know Callahan opened up the offense, got Gannon an MVP award, and won the AFC title, but in the end it was shut down by the author of that offense, in the Superbowl. If only Andy Reid’s Eagles would have won that NFC championship, we might have got another trophy, (& he may not have come to KC)