Las Vegas Raiders Rookie Roles: Wide Receiver Henry Ruggs III

Las Vegas Raiders Rookie Roles: Wide Receiver Henry Ruggs III

Why and where he was drafted

The mock drafts were split on who the Raiders would select but the near consensus was that they would select a wide receiver with one of their two first round picks. We here at Just Blog Baby debated the pros and cons of the top wide receiver prospects but as many others noted, if Al Davis was still running the Raiders there would have been little debate about selecting Henry Ruggs.

Ruggs became one of the fastest players in NFL combine history when he ran a 4.27 this spring and added more credence to his projected first round grade. This was a faster time than Tyreek Hill by .02 seconds despite being three inches taller than the Kansas City speedster.

When the Raiders were on the clock in the first round there were rumors that they would trade down from the 12th pick but they were so set on picking Ruggs that they wouldn’t risk missing out on his explosive talent. The Raiders knew they needed a number one receiver that could stretch defenses and give the other weapons room to operate and they found just the guy in Ruggs..

He was projected to go in the top half of the first round so there were no conversations about the Raiders reaching for him, just some halfhearted jokes about the Silver and Black always choosing the fastest guy in the draft.