Raiders move on from yet another high 2020 NFL Draft pick
The Las Vegas Raiders’ 2020 NFL Draft class is looking like it might be the worst in modern NFL history with the team’s release of CB Damon Arnette.
The Las Vegas Raiders‘ 2020 NFL Draft class has gone from highly questionable to horrendous and tragic in just 18 months.
The Raiders let go of first-round wide receiver Henry Ruggs after he was charged with a DUI resulting in death. The tragedy was apparently not a wake-up call for fellow 2020 first-round draft selection Damon Arnette, who became the most recent 2020 draft selection cut by the Raiders after he posted a video making death threats and waving guns at the camera while doing so.
Arnette came into the NFL with some off-field red flags anyway, but the Raiders ignored the warning signs and are now paying the price.
Raiders move on from yet another high 2020 NFL Draft pick
Raiders are releasing CB Damon Arnette, per @TomPelissero
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) November 8, 2021
The 2020 first-round pick recently posted a video of himself threatening someone and showing multiple guns pic.twitter.com/jWJAJANRmm
The 2020 NFL Draft for the Raiders could very well go down in history as one of the worst ever.
The team had five selections on the first two days of last year’s draft, and only one of them — wide receiver Bryan Edwards — remains.
Both of the team’s two first-round picks — Ruggs and Arnette — have been cut.
In less than a week, the Raiders now have released both their 2020 first-round picks, Damon Arnette and Henry Ruggs, due to off-the-field issues.https://t.co/xF5QLJr33x
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 8, 2021
The team’s first selection in round three (80th overall) was used on offensive gadget player Lynn Bowden Jr., who was traded away before his rookie season in the NFL even began.
The final selection the Raiders had on day two of the 2020 NFL Draft was spent on Clemson safety/linebacker Tanner Muse, who didn’t make the team’s final 53-man roster in 2021 and signed on with the Seattle Seahawks.
The pandemic very obviously affected the entire 2020 NFL Draft process for all teams, but the Raiders seem to have been hit harder than anyone when it comes to a complete failure to properly assess a player’s character or personality fit, not to mention the on-field scouting that led to the bizarre selections of Arnette and Muse in the first place.
Edwards looks like he will turn out to be a great pick, as does fourth-round guard John Simpson who is in the starting lineup for the Raiders.
With that being said, the pick that was used on Arnette was one of the final pieces of the Khalil Mack trade with the Chicago Bears. Even though the Bears have not won an NFL title with Mack on the roster, trading him away in his prime is one of the worst player personnel decisions the Raiders could have possibly made at the time.
And they didn’t make good use of the draft selections whatsoever.
It has been a miserable couple of months for the Raiders off the field. On the field, this team remains in contention to win the AFC West. They seemed to really rally after John Gruden’s resignation, but a loss on the road against the New York Giants coming off the bye week shows that the off-field issues are, unfortunately, catching up to this team.
How will it impact their immediate (2021) future? How will the failure of the 2020 NFL Draft class affect the long-term future of general manager Mike Mayock?
This Raiders team, as competitive as they have been at times, may be in line for a full-scale rebuild in the not-so-distant future.