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Sideline Report Mock Draft – Raiders Edition

Sideline Report Mock Draft – Raiders Edition
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Johnny Manziel was Cleveland’s pick at #4 by the AFC North with 44% of the votes.  Here are the top four picks so far in our draft:

 

Houston – Jadeveon Clowney

St. Louis – Sammy Watkins

Jacksonville – Khalil Mack

Cleveland – Johnny Manziel

 

Oakland is on the clock.  The Raiders came into the offseason with one of the highest cap space amounts in the NFL.  They were expected to retain their top 2 free agents (LT Jared Veldheer and DT Lamarr Houston) and add some other key players to make the team more competitive.  But Oakland failed to get the job done.  They let their promising young DT sign an affordable contract with Chicago, and they let their LT move on to Arizona.  The Raiders attempted to replace Veldheer with Roger Saffold, but he failed his initial physical and his contract was voided.  To fill roster spots, Oakland signed offensive tackles Donald Penn and Austin Howard, RB Maurice Jones-Drew, DEs Justin Tuck and Antonio Smith, LB Lamar Woodley, CB Carlos Rodgers, WR James Jones, traded for QB Matt Schaub, and re-signed Charles Woodson and Darren McFadden.  If this were 3-4 years ago, this would be a very talented roster.  But the reality is that most, if not all, of these players have been on a serious decline in the last couple years of their careers, and the Raiders need a serious influx of youth from the draft to reinvigorate their roster.

 

This is one of the hardest picks to gauge as every position, aside from kicker, is in play at the #5 spot.  Neither of the offensive tackles signed by Oakland are guaranteed starters, so could they go after Matthews or Robinson?  Do they believe that one of the top remaining QBs is a franchise player?  Is this too high for a WR like Mike Evans?  Or could they surprise everyone and draft the fastest player at the combine?

 

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