Ah what could have been.
Now granted, at this present time the Oakland Raiders are actually in a relatively good spot, being able to win now and built with enough young, solid talent that barring injuries or any major personnel changes, they’ll be good for quite some time.
With that said, we could have been speaking of whether the Raiders were going to defend their Super Bowl title this upcoming year with what one Reddit user came upon.
Reddit user /u/Mattyuh somehow wound up in front of the team’s 2010 NFL draft evaluation binder, which not many that aren’t inside that specific department within NFL teams ever gets to see, considering it either works out before your eyes as proof, or it’s embarrassing on the team’s part.
Based on the pictures he snapped, the Raiders nailed their scouting evaluations, with almost Nostrodamus like precision, especially the quarterbacks. Grading Tim Tebow who is now out of the NFL with a 6-round pick value is accurate, they hit it on the head with Sam Bradford, and graded with Jimmy Clausen as an arrogant person who people wouldn’t want to spend time around.
(Click images to enlarge)
The Raiders could have drafted Gronk at pick no. 42 who the scouts had as the #1 TE prospect if they hadn’t traded that pick to move down and take DE Lamarr Houston.
The scouts also were accurate in their evaluation of the guys out wide, noting Demaryius Thomas a “potential game changer” and calling Dez Bryant a “possible beast,” to which both have panned out accordingly.
Oakland has Sam Bradford and Jimmy Clausen as the top 2 rated QBs on their board, which but had their worries which have come to fruition, calling Clausen an arrogant, immature, and likely to “piss everybody off immediately,” along with saying Bradford had great pocket and passing skills, yet wouldn’t be able to stay healthy.
What can we learn from this?
The Raider’s scouting department isn’t the problem. According to these, the Raiders have management (besides the fact that other teams had picks ahead of them) to blame for their decades of losing we’ve come to associate with the team.
