Oakland Raiders: Montez Sweat impressing at Senior Bowl

The Oakland Raiders have a desperate need at the edge rusher spot for next season, and they could have found their man in Montez Sweat.

The Oakland Raiders were historically bad at getting after the quarterback last season, collecting only 13 sacks as a team. In fact, an edge rusher was not even the team’s leading sack guy, as that honor fell to rookie defensive tackle Maurice Hurst, who finished the season with four.

Heading into the 2019 NFL Draft, the Raiders have plenty of holes to fill, and getting an edge rusher is definitely one of their more glaring deficiencies. Luckily for the Raiders, this draft class is loaded with edge rusher talent, including Montez Sweat, who has been beasting it up at  the Senior bowl.

During his time at Mississippi State, Sweat developed a reputation as being one of the better edge rushers in the SEC. He is a guy who should hear his name called in the first round this April, and after starting the week out as a fringe first-rounder, he could be gone by the Raiders second of three first round picks.

In a couple of our mock drafts, we had the Raiders grabbing Sweat late in round one, but if the Raiders do not get him at No. 4, the likelihood is he will be gone by No. 24. Guys like Clelin Ferrell, Nick Bosa, and Josh Allen have gotten a lot of pub leading up the Senior Bowl, but Sweat is the one standing out.

Whether it is Sweat, or the Raiders use the No. 4 overall pick in April, the team needs to bring in an edge rusher in this draft class. Sweat makes a lot of sense for many reasons, and after seeing him perform against the best talent in college football, he would definitely look nice rocking the Silver and Black next season.