Las Vegas Raiders: Pros and Cons of drafting Jaylen Waddle at No. 17

Pros for the Raiders drafting Jaylen Waddle

Jaylen Waddle is nothing short of a special receiver, as he has unbelievable speed and above average route-running ability at every level of the field. He was used in every single way possible that allowed Alabama to get the ball in his hands, which included playing outside receiver, slot receiver, scatback in the backfield, and as their primary return specialist.

In today’s NFL, the most successful and explosive offenses spread out the defense and have playmakers all over the field. Talent is valued more then being a cookie cutter, prototypical player at any one position specifically.

Call it being able to play multiple positions, call it the ability to be diverse at any spot on the field, or however you’d like to justify the usage, but putting elite athletes on the field, especially at the receiver position is more important then worrying if you have multiple guys with similar skill sets or “labels”.

As Raiders fans, its hard to look in your own backyard within the division and see how Kansas City is having so much success in all facets of their offense. One of the most dynamic parts is their wide receiver group that has the speed and ability to make defenses choose who to worry about, because they can’t contain everyone.

The interesting part is that Kansas City has never valued having a big-bodied, Calvin Johnson-type receiver to compliment their faster players. Now, it does help when you have one of the best tight ends in the game to fill that role somewhat, but even despite having one of the fastest players in the league in Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs continued to target smaller, speedier receivers like Mecole Hardman.

Their biggest receiver is Sammy Watkins, who sits at 6-1 203 lbs.

Although the Raiders offense is vastly different from the way the Chiefs operate, vying for multiple tight end sets and valuing the play action, there’s no denying Gruden likes to spread out the offense and try to dial things up for his fast receivers on the outside in Ruggs and Agholor.

Adding Waddle to this offense would no doubt enhance the ability to be explosive. Defenses would have to worry about speed on both sides of the field when Waddle and Ruggs were in together, and we saw the impact Ruggs had mainly without the ball in his hands.

Now imagine that type of ability to open up a defense being twice as impactful.

Waddle was somewhat suppressed at Alabama due to being buried on the depth chart behind Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and DeVonta Smith. But just because his opportunity to produce was somewhat limited, he took advantage of every chance he got to be an impact player for the Crimson Tide.

The type of player within an offense that Waddle and Ruggs are is undoubtedly very similar, but that shouldn’t deter the Raiders from potentially targeting a dynamic play maker like him. Just ask the defending Super Bowl Champs, who are competing for another title, how that type of strategy worked out for them.