Andre Debose Could Be Oakland Raiders X Factor In 2015

By Jonathan George | May 29, 2015

With all of the noise surrounding the Oakland Raiders early draft choices, it is easy to forget about some of the selections they made towards the end of the third day. It’s usually pretty hard for fans to get fired up over a teams 6th or 7th round pick, as they generally struggle to make a final 53 man roster. One exception, however, should be Oakland’s 7th rounder Andre Debose from Florida.

Debose had a fairly exciting start to his career at Florida before he fell into the background due to a variety of issues including injury. He missed the 2013 season due to an injury and was granted another year of eligibility, but was never able to develop into much of a receiver threat while in college. Debose only pulled down around 30 receptions for his entire college career; hardly an exciting number when it comes to his potential as an NFL receiver.

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His true value to the raiders is fairly evident, however. He is a special teams weapon with the rare combination of vision and speed that resulted in 4 kickoff return TD’s and 1 punt return for TD while at Florida. Over the last 15 years, Debose was 8th in the SEC in total return yards with 2111, 4th in average yards per return with 26.7, and 1st in total kickoff return’s for TD’s with the aforementioned 4 (Stats courtesy of sports-reference.com).

While Debose might break through as a pleasant surprise in the slot ala Victor Cruz, his real value is on special teams. And make no mistake: The Raiders need return help. A look at 2014’s statistics when it comes to average starting field position for Oakland spells this out clearly.

The Raiders were 31st in the league last year when it came to starting field position after kickoffs, per footballoutsiders.com. The average starting yard line for Oakland post kickoff return was the 19.72 yard line. And if you factor in punts? They were dead last. The average starting yard line for Oakland’s offense was the 24 yard line. And on top of all that, the raiders had a big goose egg in the TD return department for kickoff and punt returns.

Even if all Debose ever becomes is a great return guy, grabbing someone in the 7th round that has 4.3 speed and home run hitting ability from end zone to end zone is, and always has been, extremely valuable in the NFL. Any fan, expert or coach obviously knows that when you shorten the field for your offense you raise the odds of them scoring. Debose could never catch a pass in 2015 and still make the biggest difference for the Raiders when you compare 2014 to 2015’s squad.

From the sound of it, Debose has already been making a big impression on the Raiders with his performance at OTA’s. It’s apparent he knows exactly how he can break into the league, and that is becoming the clear-cut answer at returner for the silver and black. If he can stay healthy and continue to impress coaches with his speed, Debose would be turn out to be a huge value selection at 221 overall.

Next: Who is the Raiders starting RB?

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