Last year the Raiders had such a thing for Clemson players that one day the entire staff dressed in orange gear to commemorate it. The National Champion Tigers naturally had players taken up and down the draft. But no team was more keen on them than the Raiders.
They took the first Clemson player off the board at 4th overall, nabbing edge rusher Clelin Ferrell. Then at the top of the second round, they went back to get another defender in cornerback Trayvon Mullen. And come the fifth round, it was Hunter Renfrow’s turn to don Silver & Black.
When a team is in that kind of spotlight and plays all the best teams in the nation and wins, even those who are not entering the draft at that time enjoy the residual benefit. Players get noticed who may not have otherwise and GMs like Mike Mayock revisit those players later on.
“It’s hard to bookmark Clemson players because there’s so many of them. But you’re 100 percent right,” said when I asked him whether he had his eye on Tanner Muse since last season.
Muse was the Raiders pick at No. 100 overall and who Mayock said they had the sights on when they traded down from No. 91 with the Patriots.
It was while he was watching tape from the National Championship last year that Muse jumped out.
“I was at their National Championship game a year ago,” Mayock continued. “You watch that tape at least 8-10 times on both sides of the ball. I told Tanner when we had a Zoom call with him last week, I said ‘you know, I watched you stick your foot in the ground early against Texas A&M and really chase down a screen from 30 yards behind. And I said at that point you played like a Raider. And he started laughing and loved that fact that we remembered that play.”
An interesting juxtaposition to the Raiders studying Muse while studying his teammates is since the Raiders drafted them, Muse has been watching them as well. Not because he had some great insight he would be a Raider someday, but for the same reason as Mayock did — to watch his former teammates play ball at the next level.
“Yeah, I always tried to keep up with them. Just to see their record and to make sure they were doing alright. Me and ‘Cle’, we have always stayed in touch. We’re basically best friends. We came in together, we grinded it out together. He left a little earlier than me, but we ended up at the same destination, so super blessed to get back with those guys again: Hunter, Trayvon. Trayvon is one of my brothers as well. We’ve been together on the same side playing at Clemson so I’m really looking forward to seeing them boys again.”
Now his once former teammates are his teammates once again. Funny how things work out sometimes.
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