Ghosts of Seasons Past: 5 players who have haunted the Oakland Raiders
Honorable Mention
Martavis Bryant
We start off the honorable mentions with Martavis Bryant. Coming out of Clemson, Martavis Bryant was drafted by the Steelers in the 4th round with the 118th overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft.
Bryant showed a lot of talent and promise in his first two years in Pittsburgh before being suspended for violating the leagues substance abuse policy in 2015, and then again getting suspended for the full year in 2016.
After coming off a 2017 season where he appeared in 15 games for the Steelers and putting up 603 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns, the Raiders traded for him during the 2018 NFL draft sending Pittsburgh their 3rd round pick.
Needless to say he had a very underwhelming 2018 season in the silver and black and eventually was suspended once again for violating the terms of agreement of his conditional reinstatement back in 2017.
Assets Invested: 3rd Round pick (79 overall)/$1.45 million
Obi Melifonwu
The Raiders drafted Obi Melifonwu in the 2nd round with the 56th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. Coming out of Connecticut, Melifonwu was brought in to be the yin to Karl Josephs yang. at 6″4′ 224 lbs. he was a very athletic and rangy free safety that was supposed to help the Raiders with their glaring issue of not being able to cover tight ends. Unfortunately he was stricken with the injury bug right off the bat.
They say the best ability is availability, and after only appearing in 5 games his rookie year, Jon Gruden and the Raiders parted ways with him before the beginning of the 2018 season.
The biggest reason he makes the honorable mentions list has more to do with the trickle effect drafting him caused more so then what was lost. Draft picks turn into busts all the time, its nothing new in the NFL. As much as you hate seeing a second round pick head out the door one year into his tenure, it was a comment by Jon Gruden that proved to be the biggest loss in it all.
“We wanted to take Derwin James, everybody wanted Derwin James.”
He went on to say that because of the fact the previous regime had already spent two high draft picks on safeties, a first rounder in 2016 on Karl Joseph and a second rounder in 2017 on Obi Melifonwu, that they couldn’t justify using another one for the 3rd year in a row. James went on to be selected by the Chargers 2 picks later at 17 overall and earned All Pro honors his rookie season.