The Oakland Raiders are a mess, and they have the eighth pick in the 2010 NFL draft. For normal teams they would figure out their primary need, and address it with this pick. However this is a team run by Al Davis, and he serves as the General Manager, and that means he could select anyone with this pick. There could almost be no logic assigned to this. This is a guy who drafted a punter in the first round after all.
When we look at the team needs of the Oakland Raiders we see they could use help along both lines, and in every level of their defense. They could also use a QB since at some point even Davis is going to have to admit to himself that Jamarcus Russell isn’t the guy.
Since it seems that Russell will be back in 2010, and he team has released Defensive lineman Greg Ellis I think Al Davis has two players in mind. The first is OT Bruce Campbell of Maryland, and the second is Carlos Dunlap the DE of Florida.
Now if Russell is going to be the QB it makes a lot more sense to address the issues on the Raider offensive line, but again this is Al Davis we are talking about here. On top of that Campbell is the kind of work out here type of player that Davis covets. He is a huge specimen, and is pretty fast for a big guy. For a guy who measures his players like that Campbell would be an ideal pick.
On the other hand having Dunlap on the opposite end of a D line that already featured Richard Seymour does look very attractive. Dunlap has had a few legal troubles that seem to fit him into the Raider mold, while other team may shy away from him, these kind of troubled players are exactly the kind of players that wind up wearing the silver and black.
Davis prides himself on finding a guy in the first round that no other team would consider drafting there. This led him to draft Darius Heyward Bey last year with the seventh overall pick, which turned out to be a reach.
Since there is no real way to figure out how Davis’ mind works when it comes to the draft, it would not surprise me to see him draft Tim Tebow with this pick. Ok maybe a little surprised.
Related Links:
• What should NFL teams do with their 2010 First Round picks?
• 2010 NFL Team needs
• Examiner.com Top 50 Prospect Big Board
• 2010 NFL Free Agents
• 2010 NFL Mock Drafts
• Oakland Raiders news and notes
• NFL Complete.com
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