Raiders FB Alec Ingold: The Draft Was “A Terrible Day” But Was “The Best Thing For Me”

Rookie Alec Ingold is quickly becoming a Raiders fan favorite, but more importantly he is already playing like one of the best fullbacks in the league.

Entering training camp, no one expected Ingold to beat out six-year veteran Keith Smith for a spot on the Raiders 53-man roster, especially with the understanding that Ingold could have easily been stashed on the practice squad will little risk that another team would swoop in and sign him.

But Ingold remarkably won the job and the rest was rookie fullback Gruden Grinder history.

According to Ingold, the best thing that happened to him in his quest to make an NFL team was being passed over by everyone in the draft.

“Honestly, [the draft] was kind of a reality check,” Ingold said Wednesday on Eddie Borsilli’s Yards Per Attempt podcast. “Like I said, at the Senior Bowl, being told you’re supposed to belong and you see all these guys being picked and you’re not one of them. Having a lot of family over, family and friends, it was a tough pill to swallow.”

“But honestly [not being drafted] was the best thing for me. Being able to really just look at myself and say ‘was the goal to get drafted or was the goal to be a **** good football player?’ I really took that as kind of a starting point. I know a lot of guys when you get drafted, it’s easy to say ‘OK we made it’ but I’m just really thankful that that didn’t happen for me. So then it was the starting point of my career where I’m just getting started. The goal is to a really good football player, help a team out for as long as you can instead of ‘OK my lifelong dream was to get drafted and here we are… [the draft] was a terrible day for me, me and my family, but it was definitely fuel to fire.”

For what it’s worth, since he wasn’t drafted, Ingold technically hits free agency (as a restricted free agent) a year sooner than he would have had he been drafted. But at the rate things are going, look for the Raiders to give Ingold all the money Jon Gruden can rationally (or even irrationally) offer well before his favorite fullback hits the open market.

twitter: @raidersbeat