With the draft on the horizon I want to ask the draft nuts among us, what would be your ideal 7 round draft for the Raiders?

  • Round 1: My board for the first four picks keeps changing, but I think we go defense at 4 if Williams or Beasley is still there. If not, I think we try to trade back and pick up a falling Randy Gregory or a WR like White or Cooper. Maybe even Scherff at RG if we trade far enough back? I have a feeling that we don't go WR here, though. It's too deep this draft and the top-tier talent on defense seems too good to pass up.

  • Round 2: The opposite of round 1. I think we definitely trade back here if we didn't in 1 and just go BPA. We can basically pick any guard (AJ Cann or potentially a first-rounder that falls a bit), WR (a falling Jaelen Strong or Nelson Agholor), or EDGE or DE (Odighizuwa, Preston Smith, or maybe even Lorenzo Mauldin if we go far back) and pick up a pick or two in the process.

  • Round 3: the quality of guards fall off hard from here and Round 4 on, so if we haven't gotten one by now, we need to. Arie Kouandjio, Ali Marpet, and Laken Tomlinson could all still be here. Nate Orchard is the only DE I see worth a third-round pick at our spot. If we have additional picks this round, I'm not opposed to going BPA at a skill position (Duke Johnson at RB or Clive Walford at TE, for example) or even getting a FS here like Derron Smith, an undersized-but-technical corner like Senquez Golson or Kevin White (TCU), or a DT like Gabe Wright or Grady Jarrett.

  • Round 4: double-dip. Whoever is higher on the Big Board at WR (Justin Hardy or DeAndre Smelter are steals at this point), EDGE (Za'Darius Smith or Kwon Alexander), or LB (Terrance Plummer and Ben Heeney should probably be on our radar as depth playmaking LBs).

  • Round 5: basically a continuation of 4. EDGE guys are Shaq Riddick and Geneo Grissom, WR are probably Antwan Goodley, Vince Mayle, or Kenny Bell, and LBs are Taiwan Jones or Jeff Luc.

6 and 7 are small-school guys that I don't know much about. I like Zach Zenner at RB and have heard decent hype about Derrick Lott at OLB. We could also look at some KR/PR specialists like Mario Alford and Andre DeBose.

/r/oaklandraiders Thread