There's not one tried-and-true reason to draft a player. As hard as teams try to figure out a hack that finds them a half-dozen different Pro Bowl caliber guys in each draft, and for as much as draft analysts want to convince you otherwise, there's no science to drafting. If it's not total luck, it's mostly luck.
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But on the bright side, that means any reason could, in theory, be a good reason to draft a guy. That's good news for the Raiders, who apparently were sold on Ashton Jeanty The Football Player after watching Ashton Jeanty The Celebrity. In a recent roundup of NFL Insider Stuff from Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, he points out what exactly happened during Jeanty's pro day at Boise State that truly sold the Raiders on picking him sixth overall.
The Raiders knew Ashton Jeanty was their guy the moment he interacted with their fans
"Traveling to Boise State’s pro day on March 26, the GM wanted to see how Jeanty moved through the building. How he treated lower-level people. How teammates reacted to him. What sort of presence he had within the day’s event and the program in general ... Boise is a bit of a hotbed for West Coast area and regional scouts for NFL to live in. As such, many of them brought their kids out to the pro day. And Spytek took note of how Jeanty interacted with them, and how many of them were wearing his jersey, with his autograph already on it. Spytek mentioned it to a few of the dads/scouts on hand, and their response was, simply, You gotta take this guy."
This is all very standard NFL stuff. 72-year old boomers love this kinda thing. Does Jeanty hold the door open for old ladies?! Does go to bed at a reasonable hour?! If left up to their own devices, NFL execs would just staff teams with a bunch of mild-mannered 65 year olds whose favorite musican isn't alive anymore.
Still, it's never a bad thing to hear that the Raiders' first pick in the draft is a certified good dude. That hasn't always been the case in recent years, so I imagine Raiders fans will happily take this story and send it to literally every friend they have. And, after reading it a few times over, I'm finding it hard to blame them.