The Raiders will be looking for a quarterback in this year’s draft and with the no. 6 pick, there’s a good chance they won’t have an opportunity to take Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders.
After Ward and Sanders, there is no consensus on the remaining QB prospects entering the draft, but there is one projected mid-round pick that probably received a boost when the Raiders agreed to terms with Chip Kelly to become their next offensive coordinator.
Ohio State’s Will Howard was already rising on draft boards after winning the NCAA national championship, but with his college offensive coordinator now the Raiders’ offensive coordinator, Howard should jump up the Vegas draft board even more.
“He’s right on the borderline of a top-50 pick for me at this point in time,” NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said about Howard on the Pat McAfee Show last month.
Jeremiah acknowledged he had not studied a lot of film on Howard, but added that there is a lot to like about his physical traits.
“He’s much higher than that,” Jeremiah said of the notion Howard might be drafted in the fourth round or later. “He’s a day two guy for me as we sit right now.”
For all the talk about Jaxson Dart and some other quarterbacks moving up draft boards in recent weeks, look for Howard to be a quarterback mocked to the Raiders a lot between now and April.
By the time the draft rolls around, don’t be surprised if Howard is player many are talking about as a potential first-round pick.
x: @raidersbeat
I hope this time we’ll get this right, every year our hope is build up and by the 4th game of the season, we’ve crashed and smoking in flames.
Kinda like handing a asthma patient a empty inhaler.
This year will be the same. This is not a one year turn around and Chip is not the right guy for OC. His system creates to many 3 and outs and kills the defense by the 3rd quarter. It has not evolved much and he proved it with Philly. He also made the mistake in Philly of getting players he liked or coached who fit his system instead of changing his scheme to fit his players. He thought he could put average guys on the field and his system and coaching would win out. It did not.
I think we will get it right this time. I know what you mean about having some hope and by the seventh game our season is done. Gets me angry every year for the last 20-25 years. To me we already had the right GM. Tom Telisco did nothing to lose his job but give us 3 starters in the draft last year. Great job Tom and thank you!! On the other hand Gruden Screwed up almost every one of his draft picks for years and people still want him back. Go figure that one out!!
Telesco had a decent draft … Decent isn’t a reason to not try and upgrade. TT probably had reached his ceiling as a gm after 10 years with the zaps and several more in Indy and his success’ were several good positional draft picks but no real team building ability that lead to rings . What happened to AB and TT was disappointing and while they could have been given a Longer leash …. 25 years of ineptitude earns the team even less good will from the fan base and even less patients for things to for leaders to demonstrate success. That said, I hope that this new group has success sooner than later. If they are truly committed to a giant turn around that they seem confident in their ability to create the team should see good things start to change and wins will soon follow
Thinking TT was the right GM makes anything else you said a moot point.
This has been the best off-season in many years, as far as putting administrative pieces in place. There is a lot to left to do. Free agency; we actually have some talent that we need to resign, and work through the available players. The draft, and we used to do a decent job bringing in undrafted free agents. There’s more than a good chance we will not be looking good by week 4, or week 7, and we can be discouraged, but let’s hope the nation can check the emotions and give this group some time. It’s a lot of work and we sit in a division that sent 3 teams into the playoffs. I doubt any of those teams are going to step back, we are going to have to beat them.
I can promise you , if you go back and read every Raiders related comments section everywhere on the internet, that same thing has been said every single year about every single new staff.