Oakland Raiders 2018 NFL Draft: 5 draft needs
By John Buhler
Safety
Though the Raiders have drafted a handful of safeties in the last two years, the secondary remains the biggest problem with this team. We’ve seen that Karl Joseph has popped in his second year with the club. However, his physical nature of playing the position could inevitably shorten his career. He’s still a good player thought.
It remains to be seen what the Raiders can get out of seventh-round pick Shalom Luani. He has good ball skills, but is very much a work in progress at this point. Then there is Obi Melifonwu. He was a highly touted prospect coming out of UConn, but two surgeries in his first year in the league can’t sit well with Raiders fans.
Add in that veteran safety Reggie Nelson is a free agent and probably not coming back and we should expect that the Raiders will once again draft a safety. Where they end up taking a safety is totally up in the air. It’s unlikely that the Raiders will use a top-two pick again on a safety, but a mid-round pick could be the choice for the club.
Then again, with all those sixth-round picks, Oakland could package a few of those together and move up to get the guy they want at that position. You can never have too many defensive backs. If this guy the Raiders take can either play in the box to stuff the run or cover receivers in the slot, then he could help make this team better from the jump in 2018. John Pagano needs more talent to work with in the back-end of his defense for sure.