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- Mar 19, 2019
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Al Davis isn’t running drafts for the Raiders anymore, but he probably would have liked to hear General Manager Mike Mayock’s explanation for why the team made wide receiver Henry Ruggs the 12th overall pick on Thursday night.
Ruggs was generally grouped with Alabama teammate Jerry Jeudy and former Oklahoma wideout CeeDee Lamb as the top players at the position and the Raiders opted to make him the first receiver off the board in the first round. Mayock said he thinks all three wideouts would do well in the team’s offense, but pointed to a couple of things that set him apart.
One of them is speed, which was near and dear to Davis’ heart and which propelled Ruggs to the fastest 40 at this year’s Scouting Combine.
“All three wide receivers we felt were diverse and would bring different things to the Raiders and I feel like Coach Gruden and that offensive staff is so good they could have gotten the most out of all three of them,” Mayock said, via the team’s website. “However, the distinguishing factor really was his speed, his explosion and his work ethic.”
Davis picked a lot of fast players over the years and got mixed results from those selections. The Raiders will be hoping for a hit that helps lift the offense to a higher plain than it has reached in recent seasons.