Like every team, the Raiders have had their fair share of draft misses over the past two decades. In 2004, they selected Robert Gallery over Larry Fitzgerald, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger. In 2007, they picked JaMarcus Russell over several generational talents, such as Calvin Johnson and Adrian Peterson.

However, their pick at No. 4 in the 2008 NFL Draft doesn’t even compare to other such whiffs. With that selection, the Raiders choose

1. QB Joe Flacco

Hindsight is 20/20 here, but let’s go ahead and start with Joe Flacco. It’s important to remember that the Raiders had just selected Jamarcus Russell with the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft and he started only one game as a rookie. Even though we know how the story would eventually play out, the Raiders wanted to give Russell the opportunity to start a full season so they could fully evaluate him.

Having said that, Flacco seems like the ideal Raiders’ quarterback. While athleticism and mobility were a concern, his arm talent was not. Flacco had arguably the best arm in the NFL and excelled throwing the ball down the field.

But what makes this pick so risky is that Flacco never played at an elite level over a 16 game schedule. The best season of his career came in 2010, where he had a passer rating of 93.6 and averaged 7.4 yards per attempt. For his carer, he had a passer rating of only 84.1 and turnovers always were significant issues for the former Ravens’ quarterback.

From 2008-2017, Flacco had 130 interceptions, averaging over 13 interceptions per season. To make matters worse, he took a ton of sacks (359) and averaged nearly eight fumbles per season during that stretch.

Flacco got incredibly hot during the 2012 postseason and led the Ravens to a Super Bowl win. But for most of his career, he was an average quarterback, at best.

However, he still deserves consideration for this pick in a re-draft considering his accomplishments. Positional value is really the only reason Flacco makes this list of players the Raiders should have drafted at No. 4.

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