Thursday, April 30, 2015

Oakland Raiders 2015 NFL Draft Selections (Round 1)



Round 1: Pick 4 Amari Cooper, WR, Alabama



Highlights:



Comment: The draft so far was all according to plan. Winston to Tampa, Mariota to Tennessee, Fowler to Jacksonville, that left the Raiders' draft open and all down to Leonard Williams or Amari Cooper. It was a toss up between helping Mack or helping Carr and the Raiders chose to help Carr by selecting Cooper at #4. I was never mad either way. I was torn between Williams and Cooper the past few days. Now that's over with and Amari Cooper is an Oakland Raider. I'll tell you this, he is the sole reason I was following Alabama football during the season. The game where I saw him in action for the first time was against the Florida Gators. As Blake Sims threw a deep ball, I see a #9 wide open with all green around him and I was like "who is this guy?" The more I see highlights and tape of Amari Cooper, this guy is always getting open in some way or some form. He possesses excellent route running, he finds ways to elude the defender around him and he's got smooth hands when he catches the ball. You can line him up literally anywhere, in the slot, on a screen pass, on a deep ball, etc. He can go for the jump ball too, I've seen 'Bama call a couple plays in games in the red zone where they just jump ball it to Cooper, but ultimately, the versatility that Cooper has with his route running and his deep ball, even his work ethic is the reason why I wanted the Raiders to pick him and give Carr a new toy to throw the deep ball to. Now the playbook is wide open for the Raiders to run the no huddle that Musgrave is drawing up, heading into the season.

Grade: A

No comments: