Greg Papa is no longer the voice of the Raiders, but he’s keeping up with his old team and he was a big fan of his former team’s first-round picks.
Papa believes Josh Jacobs was by far the best running back in the draft, lacking only elite top speed, and was particularly fond of the new hard-hitting safety that Mayock and Gruden added on Thursday.
“The one thing that impressed me more than anything with [Johnathan Abram] was he went to the combine and he had a grid all laid out on a spreadsheet of every GM, every coach, every defensive coordinator,” Papa said on his 95.7 The Game radio show. “He studied them so when the called him into the room and they had their 15 minutes with him, he knew their first names. That’s what you want in a leader of your defense. Higher level stuff. So that blew me away.”
Most see Abram as a strong safety, but don’t rule out the hit-stick rookie playing in more of a free safety role. Paul Guenther’s system doesn’t often play a single-high safety, but he’ll have the option when he wants.
Here’s the great @fduffy3 breaking down now new Raiders safety Johnathan Abram: pic.twitter.com/VtiM66YfqW
— ryan (@StillRyanFive) April 26, 2019
One of the questions going forward will involve the Raiders plans for another former first-round safety, Karl Joseph. Abram offers a similar skill set to Joseph, but the team does believe Abram to be a little more versatile… meaning that Joseph could hang around and potentially be on the field at the same time as Abram.
Imagine the booms Paul Guenther’s secondary could deliver with two bonafide jackhammers roaming the secondary… and don’t forget Lamarcus Joyner is a thumper, too.
twitter: @raidersbeat
