Las Vegas Raiders: Grading every draft pick of the Jon Gruden era
By Nick Ellis
Raiders 2020 NFL Draft, Round 1
Round 1 Pick 12- Henry Ruggs III- WR
- Next five picks- Tristan Wirfs, Javon Kinlaw, Jerry Jeudy, AJ Terrell, CeeDee Lamb
The Raiders badly needed a wide receiver, and just about everyone knew that they would pick that position with this pick. What fans did not know is that the team would pass up on CeeDee Lamb and Jerry Jeudy to select Henry Ruggs.
I believe Ruggs will become a solid wide receiver, but if you are picking a wide receiver in the fist round, especially with the 12th pick in a class loaded with wide receiver talent, you better take someone who will at least be a WR1.
Ruggs has a special skill set that not many other players could have, but the team passed up on CeeDee Lamb and Jerry Jeudy for him, or they could have taken Justin Jefferson with the 19th pick of the draft. Instead, the Raiders take Ruggs based on speed, and rarely use him in his rookie season.
It is too early to give a real grade for any of these players in this class yet, but based off of his rookie season, it appears the Raiders reached again.
Pick Grade: D
Round 1 Pick 19- Damon Arnette- CB
- Next five picks- KLavon Chaisson, Jalen Reagor, Justin Jefferson, Kenneth Murray, Cesar Ruiz
The Raiders badly needed a cornerback in this draft, but the class was not loaded with talent at the position. Although Arnette has not shown a lot of great signs in the bit that he has played, the situation from Ruggs is different considering the depth of talent at the position compared to wide receiver.
Once again, the Raiders stunned everyone with the selection of Arnette, and once again, it does not show a ton of promise to work out how everyone wants it to. Arnette already has injury issues, he has shown flaws in motivation and work ethic, and the worst part about those two things is that you could see these things from his days in college.
Arnette showed flashes of being a good player, but as a first-round pick, we need to see more than that. Again, it is hard to grade these players after just a small sample size of what we have seen, but this looks like another reach so far.
Pick Grade: D