The cornerback position was one of the Raiders’ top roster needs going into the draft, but when Georgia tight end Brock Bowers fell to pick 13, the Raiders opted against taking the top cornerback on their draft board.
It wasn’t until the fourth round that the Raiders finally drafted a cornerback and the reviews have been mixed on Mississippi State cornerback Decamerion Richardson.
Richardson might be a project in terms of his technique at the position, but there’s no question that he is one of the most athletic cornerbacks in the draft.
In fact, Next Gen Stats rated Richardson as the most athletic cornerback in the draft…
At 6’2, Richardson has the length to match up with bigger wide receivers and his 4.34 speed at the NFL Combine was the third-fastest time recorded among this year’s cornerback class.
Looking back to January when Raiders’ GM Tom Telesco was hired, it was reported by Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter that Telesco was going to return the Raiders to drafting better athletes, particularly from the standpoint of speed.
“At every position… [Tom Telesco] is putting a massive, and that is the word that they used, a massive value on speed. That is a big deal to him,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast just weeks after joining the Raiders.
Aside from the speedy cornerback, the Raiders focused on taking some of the draft’s best athletes at other positions, as well.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Raiders are bringing in one of the most athletic classes in this year’s draft – with only the Commanders and Steelers grading higher in terms of pure athleticism.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Bottom line you can put up all the grades, rankings, etc… but that will not mean s**t. Until September rolls around n games count n these draft picks contribute these ratings are as good as 1 ply toilet paper.