With so many big decisions coming in the offseason, one of the major talking points around the Raiders will involve the last few drafts.
Specifically, who should be held most responsible for the lack of production from some of the team’s most recent first-round picks?
From the day he arrived, Jon Gruden had final authority over every aspect of football operations, so he would have signed off on all of the Raiders’ draft picks. But Gruden obviously had scouts, assistant coaches, and a general manager that he worked with in the draft process.
Prior to the season, GM Mike Mayock told the story of the events that led to the Raiders drafting University of Illinois cornerback Nate Hobbs. Mayock said somewhere in the evaluation process he received a phone call from one of the team’s scouts, who wanted to make sure they had a high enough grade on Hobbs.
“Every building is different. Trust me, I spent 18 years at the NFL Network being in all the buildings and everybody does their jobs differently,” Mayock said in September. “We are a coach-driven building with our scouts, so I run downstairs and say, ‘Milo, get your eye on this guy, please. And tell me what you think, today.’ He comes running back up in about an hour and half, ‘We got something.’”
The “Milo” that Mayock was referring to was Raiders’ secondary coach Ron Milus, who was unquestionably one of the team’s best offseason hires.
With that story in mind, it would be interesting to know who in the building was clamoring for the Raiders’ first-round pick this year. Alex Leatherwood was drafted to fill a huge need at right tackle, but his struggles in pass protection (as well as injuries at guard) led the team to move him to guard after just four games. Leatherwood is playing a little better at his new position, but the 17th-overall pick is a high price to pay for an interior offensive lineman with a significant NFL learning curve.
According to sources with knowledge of the situation, it was Raiders’ offensive line coach Tom Cable who was pounding the table for Leatherwood throughout the team’s evaluation process. Cable’s stance was that Leatherwood was the best right tackle in the draft for what the Raiders needed at the position.
To his credit, Mayock has only ever pointed to himself on draft picks that haven’t lived up to expectations.
But in the case of Leatherwood, Cable probably deserves the lion’s share of the credit… just as he received four years ago when he was said to have led the charge for the team to draft left tackle Kolton Miller.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Nice article, however I’d like to mention that Raiders beat a crippled Cowboy team that had both of their WR1 out in Amari Cooper & Cee Dee Lamb. What concerns me, is that Carr gets accolades for winning 1 game a month. This year will be telling. Time will tell won’t it ?
Carr only gets credit for playing a good game. Do u really think our defense wouldn’t be capable of dealing with cooper and lamb chop ??
If the cowboys were crippled the raiders were on life support! We also lost out wr1 forever. Our number one overall guy waller and their head coach. Also playing without out number 1 coner mullen. So stop with the excuses it was a fair game!
Yeah… hearing these Cowboys’ fans squeal like little b*tches after they lost this game was amusing at first, but really starting to lose its charm. As noted, the Raiders lost their WR1 permanently, lost the #1 offensive threat early, still playing without their #1 LG, still playing w/o their starting left CB, no HC, had just as many penalties, and still found a way to win… on the road.
Quit whining Cowboys, starting with Jerry Jones.
And now would be good…
Totally agree with you, we are definitely on life support…
True enough. It’ll either be another dec collapse or a run for the ages. Talents there but never has a team gone thru anything quite like this. Gonna be interesting to see how the next 6 games go.
Raiders were without top receiver Ruggs and top receiving target waller went out early. What is your point? Penalties were even at 14 so can’t blame that either. All you cowgirls are full of excuses. What about the missed extra point or the missed fg? Either one and the game doesn’t even go to O.T. Quit crying cowboys choked
Cowgirls? Why does everybody call them that like it’s an insult? Being a female is not worse then being a male so what’s the point?
Hey Black bones, we were missing our two best receivers too, Ruggs and Waller. Our O line has been suspect all year and our team is being lead by a interim head coach. Typical crying Cowboy fan. Oh and the penalties, fourteen a piece. Look at the tape, your secondary couldn’t handle a 34 year old burner. The Raiders have been shafted year after year. Cry me a river, you got what you deserved.
Tom Cable was (by far)light years BETTER than CHUKDAFUK could ever be!
I think “light years” is already pretty “far”. No need for the redundancy.
When it comes to the draft, I always look at the Raiders roster. Shouldn’t be drafting players on defense from schools like Clemson, Michigan, Auburn, and Ohio State. They haven’t worked out.
Please hire Harbaugh as the next head coach. I am pounding the table!!!
Yes!!
The decision for drafting Leatherwood was still Mayocks to make! One shouldn’t try to pass the blame for this mistake on to a coach that wanted this player. Otherwise, why have a GM? Let’s just ask the coaching staff who the want and we’ll draft them! On second thought, the end result may have been better.
So who’s responsible for letting many starting QBs pass us by in the draft while we settled for DCs remarkable string of mid season collapses?
Apologies but you’re confused. Carr is not the Raiders — he is just one person. Carr hasn’t been having mid season collapses, the team has. He has still played well but that doesn’t equate to a win. There are 52 other players and many coaches.
If you look at Grudens track record beginning 2003 he took a number one defense and destroyed it with bad picks. He never ever has had a eye for talent. Comes back to the Raiders and gets rid of the number 2 or 3rd best defensive player along with a elite receiver. Not to mention our punter. What did the Raiders get in return for those number one picks. In my eyes absolutely nothing. Raiders need to hire a replacement coach.
Agree, totally. However, this isn’t that easily fixed when you have an owner that is stupid enough to give up total control to a former HC that had been out of coaching for 12+ years AND has a bad track record for talent. All the squandered draft picks says it all.
Another hit piece from the raiderbeatdown, does anyone ever actually investigate a story? The offensive line sure would look and preform much differently if all the starters were there. All but two players on the O-line are backups of backups or were sitting on a couch when the season started. But that wouldn’t have an effect on how they perform.
Let’s start asking questions about the raiderbeatdown, why don’t you have access to the team? Can’t sit in a press conference with the 100’s of other sports reporters? How did you decide to cover the Raiders? 90+% of all your reports are hit pieces or rumors
The Raiders record of mid season collapses is all you have to see to predict where they will end up this year. A mediocre 500 ball team out of the playoffs… Again.
Nobody starting on the offensive line is the backup of a backup.