Oakland Raiders, Week 5: 10 players to target in first round of 2018 NFL Draft
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders find themselves at 2-2 through their first four games of the 2017 NFL season. Oakland can still make the AFC playoffs, but will need to get starting quarterback Derek Carr back sooner rather than later. The Raiders will be picking presumably somewhere in the teens to low-20s should the 2018 NFL Draft start today.
Oakland will likely end up using its first round pick on a defensive front-seven player. The Raiders could look to improve at offensive tackle, as well as maybe go after a running back. However, we have to expect at this point that the Silver and Black will be going front-seven with what we’ve seen so far in this young season.
Fortunately, there are a lot of great players to choose from when it comes to the front-seven. Oakland might even be able to double-down in that department in back-to-back rounds like it did with its first and second picks of the 2017 NFL Draft.
Here are 10 players the Raiders could target with their first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Potential draft picks are listed in order by surname.
One player from a basketball school that could be making an impact on the gridiron is Kansas Jayhawks defensive end Dorance Armstrong. He was picked as the 2017 preseason Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. While defense remains optional in the Big 12, Armstrong looks to be the preeminent pass rusher in that Power 5 conference.
While he has yet to record a sack for KU this season, Armstrong has 13.5 in his Kansas career, 101 total tackles and 29.0 for a loss of yardage in three years in Lawrence. At 6-foot-4, 246 pounds, Armstrong looks to be the ideal size to be a pass-rushing phenom at the next level.
Get used to it. The Clemson Tigers are absolutely loaded in their front-seven. They could have as many as four players from their front-seven going in the first round. Of course, all of that can change in a matter of weeks, but one guy that’s been a commodity out on the edge is junior Austin Bryant.
Bryant is 6-foot-4, 265 pounds at defensive end. He has 9.0 quarterback sacks and 15.0 tackles for a loss of yardage in two-plus seasons with Clemson. With the Tigers expected to win the ACC and go to its third straight College Football Playoff, keep an eye on Bryant to see is he does come out of school a year early.