Oakland Raiders: 5 burning questions following the 2019 NFL Draft

The Oakland Raiders made a lot of moves this offseason. Now that the 2019 NFL Draft is over, we’ll go over some of the biggest questions still lingering.

The Oakland Raiders had maybe their most important draft in team history this offseason. With three first-round picks and seven in the first four rounds alone, this class has the opportunity to inject the talent needed to create a solid base of young players on the roster.

It also has the opportunity to set the team back and prove the people who say the game has passed head coach Jon Gruden by — or that he has never been good at drafting and identifying talent, only winning with teams built by other coaches or GM’s — right.

A lot of games at the beginning of last season were very winnable and came down to a couple of plays. So Gruden would prove he can still come up with a gameplan, but the team would usually fall apart after halftime. The question is whether or not that was due to a deficiency of talent or not making proper adjustments.

Nine players were added in the draft overall, and General Manager Mike Mayock and Gruden made some splashes in free agency, but there are still questions following the draft, so let’s go into them.

1. Is Josh Jacobs capable of being a bell-cow running back?

A lot of NFL fans don’t believe in drafting a running back in the first round. I’m not one of them. That being said, Josh Jacobs was not my favorite back in the draft — not even in my top three. He was, however, the best running back in the minds of most people, and his talent is apparent.

Jacobs never eclipsed more than 1,000 yards in his three-year career at Alabama, 640 being the most his senior year. He also was never the real feature back for Alabama, splitting carries with Najee Harris and Damien Harris.

On the other hand, Najee Harris and Damien Harris are both NFL-caliber backs themselves, with the latter having been selected in the third round this past draft. No matter how much better Jacobs is than them, he most likely would not have been the featured back because using all three, all of whom have different running styles, and keeping them fresh would have been more effective for Alabama.

Gruden’s offense loves using running backs in the passing game and that is one of Jacobs biggest strengths on top of his excellent blocking ability. He has the skill set to be a three-down bell cow back and is a perfect fit for a Gruden offense, so we’ll see whether or not he was really worth a first this year.

Hopefully, he proves people that were not that high on him as a prospect like me wrong.