2017 NFL Draft Class – Offense
We’ll go position by position, comparing the size and athleticism thresholds found based on McKenzie’s draft history. After that, we’ll see who makes the cut, who doesn’t, and then build a big board based on that.
Running Back
Reggie McKenzie has only drafted two running backs, so the sample size isn’t great. But we’ll work with what we have, and see how the 2017 class stacks up.
Here’s what we are looking for:
- 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.
There is exactly one running back that hits every single size and athletic threshold, and that’s Jeremy McNichols of Boise State. So does that mean he’s the only running back on McKenzie’s board? Absolutely not.
Again, the sample size for backs is small because he’s only drafted two in the past, and there are several backs other than McNichols who are close but just missed out in some of the categories.
Christopher Carson was 0.09 seconds too slow on his 40-yard dash but good everywhere else. Justin Davis and D’onta Foreman didn’t did running drills, and came up short in the bench. So neither of them can be ruled out.
Kareem Hunt, Alvin Kamara and Aaron Jones, not counting bench, were between 0.07 and 0.13 seconds too slow on the 40 but good in all other categories. Jones and Kamara are underclassman. Joe Williams only missed the 3-cone and was by 0.16 seconds and checked every other box. The only thing McCaffrey missed was hand size, which he missed by a quarter of an inch.
Dalvin Cook is the most notable name that did quite poorly. He missed the mark in the 40, bench, vertical, broad, 3-cone and 20-yard shuttle. Plus he had that alleged domestic incident, and he had shoulder surgery.
Mixon doesn’t have any combine scores or measurements to use, and I don’t have any pro day numbers in here. Plus, despite the visits, Mark Davis’ stance on domestic incidents has been zero tolerance.
Wide Receiver
McKenzie has drafted four wide receivers, but one of them was Andre Debose, who as a late-round pick, may have had different thresholds as he was primarily a return specialist. So we’re working with thresholds based on the other three wideouts Reggie has picked.
Here’s what we are looking for:
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.
A few things to note here — only two wide receivers McKenzie has picked had hand size measurements recorded, and both were 10 inches. So using that as a threshold negatively marks all but seven player in this class. But hand size is important for a receiver, so it’s difficult to cut any slack here. For example, John Ross has 8 3/4″ hands and struggled with drops. That’s hard to look past, despite his speed.
Only one player McKenzie has drafted did the bench press, not counting Debose, and it was 17 reps. So the bench press category negatively affected all but 8 players.
Outside of Debose, the smallest WR McKenzie has drafted is 6’1″ 211 pounds. So many wide receivers missed that threshold. Of course, that doesn’t mean there is zero percent chance he drafts someone below any of those marks, but it’s worth noting the history.
There are 10 wide receivers that only missed two other categories. There are three that failed only one category and there isn’t a single one that checked every box.
The three that failed just one were Amara Darboh, Robert Davis and Bug Howard. Chad Hansen falls into this category as well, except he is an underclassman.
Tight End
McKenzie has drafted three tight ends. Nick Kasa tested rather poorly, so the majority of the tight ends did pretty well with the thresholds.
Here’s what we are looking for:
- 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.
Three tight ends check every single box, including being a senior and a team captain, and only four of them failed three or more categories. The three that are 100% across the board are Darrell Daniels, George Kittle and Jonnu Smith.
Pharaoh Brown, Jordan Leggett and Eric Saubert all only missed not being a team captain. Jake Butt only missed arm length and Evan Engram only missed weight.
Cole Hikutini only missed being an underclassman, and David Njoku and Adam Shaheen both missed being an underclassman as well as neither were a team captain
So we’ll end up adding all but the four tight ends that missed three or more categories to the draft board at the end.
Offensive Line
For the sake of not having so many things embedded, the offensive lineman have been combined. I still used separate thresholds, but I just combined them into one doc.
Also, fun fact — McKenzie has never drafted a center in his tenure as GM of the Raiders. Other than kicker and punter, it’s the only position he hasn’t drafted anyone at.
Here’s what we are looking for:
- 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.
As was just mentioned, McKenzie has never drafted a center, so there aren’t any thresholds to make note of. If McKenzie does have certain things he looks for at center, it’s presumably pretty close to what he looks for in guards, but I decided not to do anything for center as it’d just be an educated guess.
Since offensive tackle is the most likely position that the Raiders will draft, we’ll focus our attention there.
There are 14 senior tackles that failed only one or less category, not including team captain. But there are only two senior tackles that failed zero categories not including team captain. Those two were Antonio Garcia and Taylor Moton.