Raiders coach Jon Gruden panicked during NFL Draft. Mike Mayock explains why
On the second day of the NFL draft, the Oakland Raiders made two trades to move back, but Raiders coach Jon Gruden was concerned because he had a player in mind: cornerback Trayvon Mullen of University of Houston.
General manager Mike Mayock eased the tension and still selected Mullen.
Here is how Mayock described the situation:
“There’s a whole different conversation when you’re sitting there with the 35th pick,” Mayock told Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “And you’re telling Jon Gruden it’s time to ... ‘Hey Jon, I’m going to make this trade to go back to 38 and he’s like, what about my corner? My corner won’t be there,’ and I said to Jon it will be. And we go back to 38 and the corner is still there. I’m like, Jon we have a chance to go back to 40, Let’s go back two more, and he’s looking at me like I’m crazy. We moved back two and he was still there and it’s really fun because Jon was like let’s do it again.”
The Raiders selected defensive end Clelin Ferrell (first round, fourth overall), running back Josh Jacobs (first, 24), Johnathan Abram (first, 27), Mullen, defensive end Maxx Crosby (fourth, 106), cornerback Isaiah Johnson (fourth, 129) tight end Foster Moreau (fourth, 137), wide receiver Hunter Renfrow (fifth, 149) and defensive end Quinton Bell (seventh, 230).
“We felt like we stayed consistent to our philosophy of foundation players and we stayed consistent with our board,” Mayock said. “That’s what I kept preaching all week long. Let’s trust our board and we did.”
Anthony Galaviz: 559-441-6042, agalaviz_TheBee
This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Raiders coach Jon Gruden panicked during NFL Draft. Mike Mayock explains why."
