The draft process is a process that varies from club to club in the National Football League. How one team prepares for the draft may be much different than how other clubs prepare; likewise, how one team evaluates a player may be much different than how other clubs do. Thanks to Hard Knocks, the long-running television series that follows a chosen football team throughout an offseason, fans got to see how the New York Giants went about their draft process this year. Consequently, the Giants’ front office revealed how they felt about select players who the Las Vegas Raiders drafted.
New York prepared a draft board for the 2024 NFL Draft that noted which players were drafted by which team, with select draftees having a colored background to their name. These colors, being one of blue, red, purple, pink, gray or yellow, are meant to represent different positives or negatives regarding the player in question.
While it’s not officially confirmed which colors mean what, Doug Analytics pinpointed similarities between players who share a color.
Draftees whose names have a blue background are widely known as great leaders and teammates, while those who have a gray background are thought to excel at multiple positions. There are 17 drafted players with a blue color-coding and 15 with gray.
It’s not all positive, however.
Names who share a red background are thought to have medical issues and names with a purple background are assumed to have character issues. The Giants associated 20 players with red and 10 with purple.
Three players with a color-coding ended up being drafted by the Raiders, giving Raider Nation a chance to see what another front office thinks of the Silver and Black’s draftees.
From another team’s perspective: Looking at the Las Vegas Raiders’ 2024 draft class
Brock Bowers and Jackson Powers-Johnson are two rookies who most of the NFL world thinks highly of. The New York Giants are no different.
New York gave Brock Bowers a blue background to signify his leadership, per speculation of what the color blue represents.
In April, The Raider Ramble reached out to Bowers’ tight end coach at Georgia, Todd Hartley, to talk about the Raiders’ first-rounder. Per Hartley, Bowers “leads by setting a standard of excellence with his preparation and the way he plays.”
Did you catch that, Raider Nation?
The 21-year-old sets a standard of excellence with his preparation and play. That’s as close to embodying a ‘Commitment to Excellence‘ as it gets. It’s also as close to being a team leader as it gets, making it plenty understandable why Bowers was given this color.
He wasn’t the only Raider drafted early to get a color, either. Jackson Powers-Johnson was given the gray color by the Giants; a color presumed to indicate an ability to play multiple positions at a high-level.
Powers-Johnson played 332 snaps at right guard in 2022, earning an overall grade of 83.1 per Pro Football Focus. In 2023, the Oregon alum played exclusively center in route to a 83.6 overall grade.
There’s clear potential for Powers-Johnson at multiple positions, because he’s already played at a high-level at multiple positions. The Raiders currently have plans for the rookie at guard, even announcing him as a guard on draft night.
In addition to Bowers and Powers-Johnson, there’s still one more player who the Giants associate a color with.
Las Vegas’ fifth-round pick earns praise by New York Giants front office
The Giants took note of Bowers’ leadership, but he wasn’t the only Raiders draftee who stood out as a leader to New York. Tommy Eichenberg, Las Vegas’ fifth-round pick, earned the same blue background as Bowers.
Eichenberg was a captain at Ohio State for both the ’22 and ’23 seasons. He was able to hold a starting job for three seasons with his final campaign being his most memorable. Eichenberg led his school in tackles as he was crowned the Big-10 linebacker of the year via the Butkus-Fitzgerald Award.
Per the Giants’ draft board, Eichenberg was the third-to-last player with a blue designation to be drafted.
Of the 17 players with a blue background, the G-Men were able to land two with their six picks. The first was Kentucky cornerback Andru Phillips. UCLA linebacker Darius Muasau, who was the final blue designated player available, was their second-of-two.
As far as the negative red and purple colors go, none of Las Vegas’ draft picks were labeled as such.
The Raiders welcomed a draft class that other organizations not only recognized as talented, but leaders as well. Getting the Giants’ approval isn’t everything, but it’s always reassuring to see additional teams think highly of the Raiders’ draftees. That hasn’t always been the case in the past. The rookies still have to prove the praise thrown their way is warranted, however.
Hopefully Bowers and his draftmates are ready to do just that.
*Top Photo: AP Photo/Associated Press