Early in the first round of the NFL Draft Thursday night the story was all about defense. But soon that storyline would shift to wide receiver in a big way.
At pick eight, the first receiver came off the board with the Falcons selecting USC’s Drake London. That set off a flurry of wide receivers coming off the board with six coming off the board in the 11 picks between 8 and 18. Essentially, gutting the position barely into the second half of the first round.
Originally the Raiders selected at 22 overall in this draft. Wide receiver was the top need for them coming into this offseason. But instead of waiting to see if any wide receivers would be available to them at the 22 pick, they instead traded away their first and second round picks to acquire Davante Adams from the Packers. And with the way the draft transpired Thursday night, they’re glad they made that move.
“We talked about that at pick 22,” McDaniels said of trading for Adams in light of the run on receivers. “You know there’s all those things that you can look back on and so forth, but we made that decision a while ago and are very happy with what we received in that transaction and I’m sure Green Bay is happy with who they picked tonight. Davante is a pleasure to be around and having the ability to work with him just a little bit this week in the minicamp was fun for everybody and just to start that process together. Looking forward to more of that as we go through the Spring.”
McDaniels said they expected the first round run on receivers, which is to say they didn’t expect any of them to be there at 22. He also said he expected all the top tackles — their other big need — to be gone, which would further suggest that the value in keeping the 22 pick wouldn’t be there.
Certainly not the value they figure to get from Adams.