Oakland Raiders: Worst First Round Draft Picks In Franchise History

Fabian Washington (Twenty-Third Overall – 2005)

The thing Al Davis loved the most was a player with speed. If somebody was lightning fast, there was a good chance Davis was angling for a way to get him into a Raiders uniform. Which is pretty much how Fabian Washington ended up in Silver and Black.

After posting an impressive 4 time of 4.29 at the NFL Combine, Washington started popping up on a lot of team’s draft boards. It was the sort of speed that Davis coveted. And he proved it by taking the Nebraska product with the twenty-third overall pick in the 2005 Draft.

Unfortunately for Washington – and for the Raiders – his blazing speed couldn’t help him play consistently or manage to keep him in the starting line up. Over his three seasons with the Raiders, Washington appeared in 45 total games and made just 28 total starts. Over that span, he notched 133 total tackles and five total interceptions.

There’s no question that Washington was fast, he just didn’t seem to have the necessary skills to play cornerback on the NFL level. At least, not consistently or entirely effectively. He was essentially D.J. Hayden before the Raiders had ever heard of D.J. Hayden.

To his credit though, after the Raiders traded him to Baltimore following the 2007 season, Washington refused to blame the organization and instead blamed himself for his lack of production on the NFL stage. In an interview at the time, he said:

"“I don’t blame them at all. I blame myself. I was the one on the field. If I was playing well, I would still be there right now. I was playing terrible. At the time, I would have traded myself if I was playing that bad.”"

Washington went on to play three seasons with the Ravens and didn’t post numbers that were all that much better than his numbers in Oakland. He hung them up for good following the 2010 season.

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