Round 4, Pick No. 109: G John Simpson
Simpson was actually the player I pegged them taking with their previous pick in the third round, so getting him at this pick made sense, even without him being another Clemson guy. He appeared in seven games as a rookie, starting two. He clearly had some issues to work out, causing him to get tossed around a bit., but overall he wasn’t a glaring liability.
Grade: C+
Round 4, Pick No. 139: CB Amik Robertson
Many people thought the Raiders may have gotten a sneaky steal with Robertson late in the fourth. Time will tell if that analysis is correct, but as a rookie, we didn’t see any of that. He barely saw the field, even as the Raiders were often in need of injury replacements. Robertson was inactive as many games as he appeared in and saw just 33 defensive snaps all season.
Grade: D
Class assessment:
No one expects a rookie class to carry a team. What they do hope, however, is to get some meaningful production out of them. What the Raiders needed was someone to step up during their stretch run. They didn’t get any of that.
They traded away Bowden who was helping the Dolphins through their injury issues, but still had rookie wideouts Ruggs and Edwards and neither were making a significant difference. That goes for their three defensive picks as well on one of the league’s worst defenses.
Overall grade: D+
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