2013: D.J. Hayden, CB, 1st Round (12th overall)
Remember in the introduction to this article, when I talked about how much criticism Reggie faced from the time he was hired, and how he just stayed the course, ignored the outside noise and found success on his terms? D.J. Hayden is almost the opposite of that.
The Raiders originally held the 3rd overall selection in the 2013 draft. That may have been the most nervous I’d ever been watching the Raiders draft, because our needs were so plentiful and there were so many directions for McKenzie to go in, it was almost impossible to know what to expect.
In hindsight, the deck appeared to be stacked against him. The list of the first ten names chosen in that draft reads like an obituary. And while I’m a firm believer that the team a player is drafted to has just as much bearing on his success in the league as how talented he actually is, at that time Oakland wasn’t exactly a destination primed to bring the best out of many people. As of this writing, not a single player that was drafted by the Raiders in 2013 remains on the roster.
Making matters more complex, McKenzie decided to trade out of the third overall spot (perhaps sensing impending doom) and swap places with the Dolphins, while picking up an additional pick. To his credit, he won that trade (the Dolphins got absolutely nothing out of Dion Jordan); but he then chose DJ Hayden at 12th overall, and then boldly claimed later that night that he would’ve chosen Hayden with the third pick if he had been unable to swing a trade. Egh.
You can look at the names that were chosen immediately after Hayden and cringe if you’d like. I can also understand if you’d rather not — nine Pro Bowlers and some other pretty good players out the last sixteen picks in the first. But remember, we’re only judging him against the success of other players from the same position, and that’s almost just as bad.
Corners Desmond Trufant and Xavier Rhodes, who were chosen at 22nd and 25th overall respectively, are two of those aforementioned Pro Bowlers; on the other hand, Dee Milliner, who many had rated as the top corner of the class, was chosen three spots ahead at number 9 overall. But he’s had an even rougher go of it than Hayden has. So there’s that.
In a twisted bit of irony, the Raiders signed Hayden’s 2013 classmate David Amerson off of the street in the first month of the 2015 season. Amerson was selected in the 2nd round of the 2013 draft by Washington, and had struggled with consistency in his first two seasons with the franchise. In Oakland, he regained his confidence and eventually leapfrogged Hayden on the depth chart, taking over as the #2 corner and playing his way into a big contract extension during the offseason.
Hayden of course departed for Detroit this offseason, where he will join Darius Slay — another 2013 cornerback who has roundly outplayed him the past four years. Good luck, DJ.
2014: Keith McGill, CB, 4th Round (116th overall)
I’ve probably said it twice already in this article, but it truly can’t be stated enough — the 2014 class is McKenzie’s magnum opus. It’s the class he’ll be judged against for the rest of his career — was it a fluke? Was it genius? Can it ever be replicated?
With that said, not every pick in that draft was a home run, because again, they can’t all be. Looking strictly at tangible ROI, you could argue that Reggie’s worst decision that year was taking safety Jonathan Dowling in the seventh round, based on how brief his stay was (and why it was so brief — he was released in 2015 for “maturity issues”).
On the other hand, at the time, the pick was generally praised for it’s value. Dowling was highly-regarded talent-wise, but never truly developed as a prospect. He began his college career at the University of Florida but was dismissed after his freshman year for, you guessed it — an issue with his position coach. He finished his career at Western Kentucky, and popular thought at the time was that he should’ve stayed in school for his senior season.
You might also argue that Shelby Harris was the Raiders’ worst pick that year. I don’t know why you would, though. He was a seventh-round pick that bounced in between the active roster and the practice squad for the duration of his stay in Oakland, and has done the same thing with each of the three other teams he’s been on since. That’s usually what’s expected of seventh-round picks.
When you get anything more than that out of a seventh-rounder, you consider it a win. Enter Travis “TJ” Carrie; Carrie has played outside corner, nickel and safety when called upon, and have done all well enough to establish a foothold as a valued member of the Raiders secondary.
So much so, that it renders Keith McGill as the worst pick of the 2014 class. McGill fits classic McKenzie thresholds for a corner — that is tall, long-armed and big-bodied — and when you look at the names of other corner that were taken behind him, I’m very ok in saying that for the most part, McKenzie got this one right. But, in confrontation of the facts, he also got a much better player at the same position three rounds later. So, as nitpicky as it is, McGill has to hold this L.