Draft day decision makers: Oakland Raiders

This one feels a little silly to write because as all of us already know when it comes to the Oakland Raiders the final say on everything comes down from Al Davis. A lot of people knock Davis on draft day (myself included) but over the past five years he has done fairly well in the draft. Over that time period I would give him an above average grade. However, the problem usually comes in the year after he has a good draft class. Last year’s was way above average and by looking at his history we can expect a poor draft this year.

So here are the ugly numbers fro the Raiders. They have not won a playoff game since 2002, and in that time they have now had six head coaches. We can effectively argue that some of their picks just have not gotten a good chance as there has been little continuity on what this team was doing on the field from year to year. The offense looks lie it will have some continuity this year, but the defense will have its third coordinator in the last four years.

We all know Davis takes the numbers players put up at the NFL Scouting Combine and on their pro day very seriously. He covets fast guys and a lot of the time he likes guys who put in big time 40 times. Sometimes that strategy works out, often it does not. Since this team has a big need at receiver I think we will see Al take a guy who has a very low 40 time.

Related Links:

• Oakland Raiders War Room
• Joshua Lobdell.com