Oakland Raiders: Worst First Round Draft Picks In Franchise History

John Clay (Fifteenth Overall – 1987)

To be perfectly fair and balanced here, the bottom half of the 1987 Draft was pretty much a dud. Though players like Cornelius Bennett and Rod Woodson went in the top half of the draft, the rest of the first round was more or less forgettable.

Despite the dearth of first round talent, the Raiders still managed to lay one of the biggest eggs of the Draft – quite possibly, one of the biggest eggs in franchise history – when they took offensive tackle John Clay out of Missouri with the fifteenth overall pick.

The Raiders had hoped to be getting a cornerstone piece for their offensive line. A stalwart tackle who could help anchor that line for years and years to come. What they wound up getting out of it? Ten total games with nine starts.

Clay’s play was so poor and inconsistent that he couldn’t manage to crack the starting lineup and stay in it. It didn’t take long for the Raiders to give up on him either. The team shipped their former first round pick to San Diego the following season, getting one of the better linemen in the game – Jim Lachey – in return.

Oh, if only that circle had closed there though. After acquiring Lachey for Clay, the Raiders went on to trade him to Washington for quarterback Jay Schroeder – which is a name that still sends either a feeling of rage or a chill down the collective spines of the Raider Nation.

Burning a first round pick on Clay was terrible. Sending him to San Diego for Lachey made up for that sin. But then trading Lachey to Washington for Schroeder wiped out the atonement and compounded that original sin. So clearly, the franchise getting stuck with Schroeder is all Clay’s fault.

Next: The 2010 Draft