Power ranking the Oakland Raiders biggest 2019 NFL Draft needs

The 2019 NFL Draft is only a couple of days away and the Oakland Raiders undoubtedly have a ton of needs to address. We went through and ranked the team’s top five weaknesses ahead of this week.

It’s been a long ride and an even longer wait, but the 2019 NFL Draft is nearly upon us. With three first-round selections, the Oakland Raiders will absolutely have plenty of draft capital to fill their various needs across the roster.

And that should be good news considering just how many holes they still must fill.

It should be needless to say but after a disastrous 4-12 season last year, the Raiders find themselves lacking at many different positions across the board. While the offseason acquisitions of players such as Antonio Brown and Trent Brown among others have helped mitigate some of their concerns, there still remains plenty of needs to address.

Perhaps positions such as wide receiver and offensive tackle may not be of the utmost concern any longer, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are still plenty of other positions to fix. New general manager Mike Mayock and head coach Jon Gruden will certainly have their hands full come Thursday and into the weekend, that’s for sure.

With that, let’s take a look at the top five biggest positions of need as the Raiders enter the 2019 NFL Draft.

5. Offensive Guard

The Raiders offensive line was already a weakness last season and the offseason trade of starting left guard Kelechi Osemele to the New York Jets only made that weakness even more apparent.

Currently, the Raiders have longtime starting guard Gabe Jackson slotted in as the top option on the right side, but the left guard position still remains vacant. If the season were to begin today, former Indianapolis Colt Denzelle Good would likely be penciled in as the starter, but he is far from an appealing option.

Good played in four games last season with the Raiders, starting three in place of the injured Jackson. However, his play was hardly inspiring as he earned a poor 52.5 grade with Pro Football Focus.

In his four seasons in the NFL, Good has started just 23 career games and has shown nothing that would lead the team to believe he could be a viable starting candidate. The same could be said for both Chaz Green and Denver Kirkland who will each be fighting for roster spots come August.

Essentially, the Raiders need help at guard and they need it bad.

The team has been tied to Boston College’s Chris Lindstrom who could represent an intriguing target with one of their latter two first-round picks. If not, it would be wise for Oakland to address the need early enough so they at least select a player who could be asked to start Week 1.

For the sake of the entire offense, this should be a priority.