Predicting what the draft board of Reggie McKenzie and the Oakland Raiders might look like based on his draft history.
With five drafts now under his belt as General Manager of the Oakland Raiders, what can we learn by reviewing Reggie McKenzie’s draft history? Are there trends or similarities that might indicate if there is a certain “type” of prospect that he prefers to draft?
Specifically, looking at size, athleticism, traits and other measures, is there anything that stands out that can help Raider Nation figure out which players McKenzie might have his eye on in the 2017 NFL Draft?
In a follow up article from last offseason, let’s dive in and see if we can do just that. We’ll review McKenzie’s draft history and put together what his draft board might look like.
Draft History – Size and Athleticism Thresholds
Let’s start by examining McKenzie’s draft history. Below are each of his draft classes, followed by their measurements and athletic scores from the combine or pro day. We’ll look at every player McKenzie has drafted to see if there are any minimum size and/or athleticism thresholds that he looks for.
To find this out, I put together the pre-draft measurements of all of McKenzie’s picks. It’s sorted by position and color coded to make it a little easier to compare players at the same position.
There are two different categories — Height, Weight, Arm Length, Hand Size, 40-Yard Dash, Bench Press, Vertical Jump, Broad Jump, 3-Cone Drill, 20-Yard Shuttle, Senior and Team Captain.
Just to try to keep this as simple as possible, we’ll just consider the minimum thresholds to be whatever the lowest mark is per position, per category.
You can click on the below embedded Google Doc to scroll left or right to view each category.
Based on that data, here are the minimum size and athleticism thresholds at each position.
- RB: 5’8″, 204 lbs., 30″ arms, 9 1/4″ hands, 4.49 40-yard dash, 22 bench press reps, 34 1/2″ vertical, 118″ broad, 7.03 3-cone, 4.36 20-yard shuttle.
- *WR: 6’1″, 211 lbs., 31 1/2″ arms, 10″ hands, 4.54 40-yard dash, 17 bench press reps, 33″ vertical, 117″ broad, 7.15 3-cone, 4.4 20-yard shuttle.
- TE: 6’3″, 242 lbs., 32 5/8″ arms, 9 1/8″ hands, 4.81 40-yard dash, 17 bench press reps, 31″ vertical, 112″ broad, 7.32 3-cone, 4.57 20-yard shuttle.
- OT: 6’5″, 303 lbs., 32″ arms, 9″ hands, 5.3 40-yard dash, 19 bench press reps, 24 1/2″ vertical, 101″ broad, 8.31 3-cone, 5.01 20-yard shuttle.
- OG: 6’3″, 332 lbs., 32 3/8″ arms, 9 3/4″ hands, 5.57 40-yard dash, 23 bench press reps, 24″ vertical, 95″ broad, 8.25 3-cone, 4.9 20-yard shuttle.
- DE: 6’2″, 251 lbs., 33 1/4″ arms, 9 3/8″ hands, 5.11 40-yard dash, 14 bench press reps, 25″ vertical, 110″ broad, 7.52 3-cone, 4.63 20-yard shuttle.
- DT: 6’0″, 308 lbs., 33″ arms, 9 3/8″ hands, 5.27 40-yard dash, 25 bench press reps, 28″ vertical, 92″ broad, 7.81 3-cone, 4.75 20-yard shuttle.
- LB: 6’0″, 229 lbs., 30 3/4″ arms, 9″ hands, 4.83 40-yard dash, 16 bench press reps, 31″ vertical, 116″ broad, 7.59 3-cone, 5.01 20-yard shuttle.
- CB: 5’11”, 191 lbs., 31 1/8″ arms, 9″ hands, 4.51 40-yard dash, 10 bench press reps, 33 1/2″ vertical, 120″ broad, 7.29 3-cone, 4.56 20-yard shuttle.
- S: 5’10”, 190 lbs., 32 1/8″ arms, 9 1/4″ hands, 4.5 40-yard dash, 8 bench press reps, 33 1/2″ vertical, 118″ broad, 7.04 3-cone, 4.24 20-yard shuttle.
*Andre Debose has some thresholds that is lower than what is listed above, but as a late-round pick, he may have been drafted only as a return specialist.
Something interesting to note is that out of McKenzie’s 41 selections, a staggering 37 of them were seniors. And two of the players that were not seniors had three years of on-field experience — Mario Edwards Jr. and Amari Cooper. So 95 percent of his picks played at least three years in college.
18 out of 41 players were team captains in college. That’s less than half, so obviously not a big factor, but it’s worth at least noting.
Next, we’ll look at each position in this draft class, every prospect, and see which players meet these thresholds and which don’t.