Over the last couple of days, we have seen more and more mock drafts connecting Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons to the Raiders at No. 17. The draft’s top linebacker, most sites and draft analysts believe he would be a strong fit in Gus Bradley’s defense in Las Vegas.
However, the team has already restructured the contracts of Nick Kwiatoski and Cory Littleton and re-signed Nicholas Morrow. For those reasons alone, the pick just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the consensus here as Parsons is a quality prospect. According to Pro Football Focus, he is the site’s highest-graded linebacker they have ever evaluated. And in their most recent mock draft, that’s exactly who they had the Raiders selecting in the first round:
“Parsons won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, and that could cause him to fall. Still, it’s hard to see him not being Jon Gruden’s kind of guy. At 245 pounds, Parsons plays a physical brand of football that the Raiders’ defense simply hasn’t had.”
Unless the Raiders are drastically able to improve their offensive line in free agency, this pick doesn’t seem all that realistic. However, Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock have certainly surprised us before.
Parsons is an extremely talented player and likely would be an upgrade for the Raiders at one of the linebacker spots. But given all of their different needs, it does feel a bit unrealistic at this stage in the offseason.
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