Can you imagine for a minute if the NFL decided to have a league-wide re-draft where all of the rosters from the 32 teams were dumped into one big pool? How many quarterbacks would be selected before the first positional player? Where would the aging passers such as Tom Brady and Drew Brees be selected?
ESPN and their team of 32 beat writers decided to tackle this idea in a recent re-draft article, similar to what we did at this time last season. Not surprisingly, the first round was littered with quarterbacks and Patrick Mahomes was the No. 1 pick.
For the Raiders at pick No. 12, most of the top quarterbacks were off the board. However, they were able to select Aaron Rodgers to rebuild their franchise. Here is Paul Guiterrez’s reasoning behind the Rodgers’ selection:
Let’s make right what once went wrong, shall we? The Raiders coulda, shoulda, woulda drafted Rodgers way back in 2005, but went with speedy cornerback Fabian Washington instead. Now a grizzled vet and a future Hall of Famer, Rodgers has a massive chip on his shoulder with the Packers having drafted Jordan Love, and Jon Gruden loves vets with chips — and ‘ships.
Rodgers has clearly declined over the past few seasons and is 36 years old, but he would be a perfect fit in Jon Gruden’s scheme. However, you can make a case that Guiterrez should have went younger at the position with Joe Burrow and Kyler Murray both still on the board.
Overall, it wasn’t the worst re-draft for the Raiders as Guiterrez grabbed Von Miller, Josh Jacobs and Henry Ruggs III with his next three picks. But this draft could have been even better if the Raiders went younger at the quarterback position at No. 12.
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