Pro Football Focus shockingly believes the Las Vegas Raiders will take a wide receiver in this year’s NFL draft in April.
If the Raiders want to give their fanbase a full-blown meltdown on social media, there’s one way to do it. Save for a Derek Carr trade, drafting a wide receiver in the first round will do exactly that. In a recent mock draft, PFF has Las Vegas picking up Rashod Bateman from the University of Minnesota.
Last year, the Silver and Black drafted two wide receivers, Henry Ruggs III and Bryan Edwards. However, neither played the way the team projected. Whether it was injuries or usage, the best wide receiver to emerge from 2020 was Nelson Agholor. Surely the Raiders haven’t given up on Ruggs or Edwards to the point they’d use a first-round selection on a wideout or have they? Well, this is the same organization that picked Ruggs over CeeDee Lamb and Damon Arnette over Justin Jefferson.
Bateman could be a starter with the Raiders…
As far as Bateman’s concerned, he could very well turn out to be a star in the NFL. At 6’2″ and 210 pounds, he has the tools to be a Day 1 starter with PFF calling him NFL ready. He averaged more than 13 yards per reception in his collegiate career, his highest average coming in 2019 at an eye-popping 20.3.
Rashod Bateman will be an instant impact rookie 🙌 pic.twitter.com/w2ga5kuo6V
— PFF Fantasy Football (@PFF_Fantasy) March 1, 2021
None of this is a knock on Bateman at all. Rather, it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Raiders. This team needs defense early and often, or, an offensive tackle if Trent Brown isn’t retained for 2021. Without knowledge of what the Raiders will do, drafting a first-round wide receiver is too little too late. The organization had a chance to hit two home runs in last year’s draft but whiffed twice instead.
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*Top Photo: Michael Hickey/Getty Images
If the Raiders want to win now, maybe the OL holes could be best filled by veteran free agents. But taking a WR in the first is just admitting that Ruggs and Edwards are not good players, as well as acknowledging that NA likely isn’t coming back. If the Raiders don’t think they can get one of the good WRs in free agency, their hand could be forced, because Ruggs and Edwards are bad players. The one thing here that doesn’t make sense, though, is that NA’s career renaissance with Carr should make the Raiders more attractive to free agents, as Carr has shown with Crabtree, NA, and even early with Williams before he got hurt, that he will feed the ball to talented veterans. So why the Raiders would go with Bateman is a little bit of a mystery unless Gruden is convinced he’s a future Pro Bowler. Of course, given Gruden’s misses, that judgement would be pretty suspect.
With all the other outwardly poorly run teams I find it funny writers FOR the raiders spend a lot of time basically bashing the raiders and the moves they make. Are you one of the decision makers? Are you one of the owners? Do you have ANY sway on the teams choices at all? If all of any of those is no then shut the f*** up! It’s a sport. If this team was so horrible maybe our quarterback would want out. Our star defensive player would be on tv apologizing to the world! Oh I forgot THATS NOT THE RAIDERS! This is why I will always believe the education in this country is horrible. As a “writer†you should return the money to whatever college you went to. An unbiased opinion works in politics but this is sports. If you’re a writer for the raiders then actually write like you actually like the raiders. At what point does that simple thought become a difficult task. Damn! I love the raiders but ducking hate their beat reporters! You all eat dick! Learn to be TEAM REPORTERS! F****** douche bags!