Oakland Raiders: Does this team stink? Tough love from a Browns fan
By Joel W. Cade
Drafting for Success
It all starts with the draft. Browns fans live for the draft. It is their Super Bowl. As such, they have become very knowledgeable in drafting theory. The Oakland Raiders 2018 draft was bad. It was not bad because they got bad players. On the contrary, Kolton Miller starts (but why?). PJ Hall has contributed. Arden Key is starting to show some life. The best pick was Maurice Hurst, but he was an aberration to the Raiders modus operandi.
I stay with the 2018 draft because it looks like it was crafted by Jon Gruden. With Gruden having his own inner circle of talent evaluators, these types of drafts will be the wave of the future.
Looking at the Raiders draft class, one thing stands out. The Raiders draft athletic freaks who look the part. They have the height, weight, 40-yard dash speed, etc. All the measurables add up. They check the box of looking the part and having the athletic ability to be the part. The problem is, nobody asks the most important question — can they play football?
Exhibit A for this is Kolton Miller. He looks the part and old school football guys love him. They praise him non-stop for his potential to be great. But is he great? Is he even decent? Can he play football? As of right now, the answer is a resounding no.