Admittedly, I was looking for a cornerback here to pair alongside Trayvon Mullen. With the top three guys, Jeff Okudah, C.J. Henderson, and Kristian Fulton all off the board, the value at the position just wasn’t there. However, the Raiders can still address their secondary with another University of Alabama product.
Diving into Xavier McKinney’s profile on The Draft Network, there is one common theme that all of their analysts point out, versatility. Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther loves putting his safeties at multiple spots on the defense and that’s exactly what he’d be able to do with McKinney.
According to The Athletic’s Vic Tafur, Las Vegas still views Lamarcus Joyner as a slot corner which means the team could use another young safety to pair with Johnathan Abram. Sure, Erik Harris played well last season and his presence keeps the position from being a desperate need, but he also turns 30-years old next month and will be a free agent in 2021.
Also, Abram only played one game last season after tearing his rotator cuff, so he’s still an unknown at this point and the Raiders’ need for a defender on the back-end of its defense could be bigger than it seems.
The other player on the board who caught my eye was LSU safety, Grant Delpit. While Delpit is great in coverage, his tackling is suspect and both Gruden and Guenther place a high priority on defenders who can consistently bring ball carriers down. As far as other notable players/positions that were on the board, it was a lot of offensive tackles and running backs and Las Vegas is pretty set at both of those spots for years to come.