Going into this year’s NFL draft on April 25, the Raiders are in great position to make some high-impact selections, having three first-round choices (Nos. 4, 24 and 27) and another early in the second round (No. 35 overall).
But Raiders general manager Mike Mayock also is excited about opportunities later in the draft and is hopeful of collecting even more selections over Day 2 and Day 3 of the procedure.
Mayock told reporters this week that he loves the type of players available from picks “20 through 60” and would be open to making deals to move into that slot. He and head coach Jon Gruden -- who will work together to conduct the draft -- are eager to upgrade spots all over the roster.
“I’d love to get a couple more picks in there,” Mayock said, according to Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I just think we’ve got a lot of holes that need to be filled. And I think that’s a really good place to go fishing. And if we can, we can.”
For now, the Raiders don’t have a third-round selection, but have one in Round 4 (No. 106 overall), one in Round 5 (No. 140) and two in Round 7 (Nos. 218 and 235).
Yet even if the Raiders can’t acquire more selections through draft-day deals, Mayock says he knows Oakland is in great position to get much better in this year’s draft. What's important is making the right choices in those slots.
“If we do nothing but sit there and go 4, 24, 27, (35), what we keep talking about upstairs is we’d better get four foundation football players,” Mayock said. “We define foundation as talent and football character. … And if we don’t move up, down or anywhere, we’d better get four of those guys.”
