It was reported last week that Baltimore was a team prepared to draft Alabama left tackle Alex Leatherwood in the first round, but according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, there were more teams than just the Ravens who were eyeing Leatherwood in round one:
“The Alex Leatherwood pick wasn’t a panic move in the first round. The Raiders knew of multiple teams behind them that were high on Leatherwood, including the Vikings and Steelers.
The Steelers seemed locked into Najee Harris but liked Leatherwood’s skill set better than a lot of the second-tier tackles. And if Christian Darrisaw was off the board by No. 23, Minnesota could have gone that route.
The Raiders knew all this, so instead of trading back, they played it straight up and took a player whom they believe will be a long-term solution at right tackle.”
GM Mike Mayock said after the draft that the Raiders received one phone call about pick 17. He added that the call came from a team in need of a left tackle. There has been some speculation that the call may have come from the Vikings… and the Raiders believed the pick may have been used on Leatherwood.
Mayock also said that when the Raiders were on the clock at pick 17, Leatherwood was the highest-graded player left on their board. By all accounts, the decision to draft Leatherwood was practically unanimous in the Raiders’ building and the report about a shake-up coming in their personnel department is feeling more like fake news every day.
twitter: @raidersbeat
…..and the media draft pundits and fan couch-GM’s, that think that they know more about football, than Gru-yock & Company, need to just STFU. These wanna-be’s have so little access to the info/intel that the 32 NFL organizations have, yet they feel that they can intelligently and emphatically call-out teams for making bad draft decisions. GTFOH
Can’t stand that Raider hating punk Kyle Brandt on good morning football.