Raiders Don't Understand the Draft

Back in the 1940s, some NFL teams used to grab a Street and Smith's college annual on their way into the NFL draft and just pick from the All-American and All-Conference teams.

Thankfully the NFL has come a long way from the bad old days. Now teams spend months scouting every potential draft pick, looking at hours of game film, timing them in all kinds of combine workouts and talking to the friends, family and enemies of every pick to get the background they need.

But then there are the Raiders, who simply write down a list of 40-yard dash times and draft from there. The Darrius Heyward-Bey pick was embarrassing, because Oakland could have likely traded down several spots if they were convinced they wanted the speedy, if inconsistent, receiver. But when the Raiders took Ohio safety Michael Mitchell in the second round, they made themselves a joke to the rest of the league.When NFL.com expert Mike Mayock heard the pick, he couldn't believe it.

"The Ohio University safety?" Mayock asked with a tone of incredulous disbelief. "I had never heard of Mike Mitchell before three weeks ago when he ran a good time at his pro day."

Because of that good workout (Mitchell ran a 4.43 40-yard dash), Mayock bumped him up to a seventh-round draft grade. NFL.com doesn't have any analysis or overview on him, because they didn't expect him to be drafted. ESPN.com's Scouts Inc ranked 80 safeties ($) coming into the draft, Mitchell wasn't one of them. They've slotted him at No. 81 now. Mel Kiper Jr. said that he had Mitchell ranked somewhere between his 40th and 70th safety.


To say that the NFL has left Al Davis behind is to be too kind. Al Davis is still trying to play football from the 1970s, while everyone else is a year away from 2010. What was once a Commitment to Excellence now makes the Bengals' Mike Brown look like Bill Belichick.

As Kiper Jr. famously argued years ago when the Jets took Jeff Lageman, the Raiders don't understand the draft. It doesn't matter if Mitchell ends up becoming a Pro Bowler, because even if that happens, the Raiders could have taken Mitchell in the fourth or fifth round with no absolutely no concern that he would have been gone. There's a chance that they could have left him go undrafted and then signed him as an undrafted free agent.

By the way, don't expect Mitchell to become a Pro Bowl safety. Oakland has drafted eight safeties in the past nine years, only two of them are still on the team. They've drafted two first-round safeties in the past decade. One, Derrick Gibson, was a big-time bust, while Michael Huff, another first-round safety, has lost his starting job.

Here's a highlight tape. Mitchell looks like he can hit, so that's something.