Reggie draft ability? Overall as a GM?

[Humble_Beast]

Do you think Reggie Mckenzie is great at drafting? How would you grade him.... In my eyes, he is an expert at cap management, similar to how Green Bay is smart in that regard. He hired a horrible coach in Dennis Allen, but corrected that error with hiring a good coach in Jack Del Rio...

How about his drafts
2012
3    95         Tony Bergstrom    OG    Utah    
4    129                 Miles Burris    OLB    San Diego State    
5    158[d]      Jack Crawford    DE    Penn State    
5                       Juron Criner    WR    Arizona    
6                Christo Bilukidi    DT    Georgia State
7                 Nathan Stupar  LB     Penn State
I give Reggie pass on this draft....it was ugly, but one can argue the old regimen scouted most of these guys.. Horrible draft, and Hue Jackson went crazy trading for Carson Palmer. Al Davis wanted Pryor which cost us a 3rd.. Horrible draft... Most of these guys weren't NFL players. Only guy still in the NFL is Jack Crawford, who is a backup on the Falcons

Draft Grade: F

2013 Draft
1    DJ Hayden    CB    Houston       - flop, star CB Xavier Rhodes and Marcus Trufant were drafting after Hayden
2    Menelik Watson    T    Florida State- flop, could never stay healthy. Never was capable to play LT, strictly a RT. Project never panned out
3    Sio Moore    LB    Connecticut  - flashed early on as decent starter.. Injury and attitude failed him. off the team and now out of the nfl
4    Tyler Wilson    QB    Arkansas - flop.... I don't even think he made it out of camp
6a.    Nick Kasa    TE    Colorado -   wasn't an NFL player
6b.    Latavius Murray    RB    Central Florida - actually a good pick. great value as a 6th round pick
6c.    Mychal Rivera    TE    Tennesee  - had his moments early in his career. Strictly a receiving tight end. decent value in the 6th, currently on Jags
6d.    Stacy McGee    DT    Oklahoma - late bloomer, who played okay on his career year. Left the Raiders to the Redskins before he could truly make an impact
7a.    Brice Butler    WR    San Diego State  - traded to the Cowboys. Depth player, shown he can play in the NFL
7b.    David Bass    DE    Missouri Western State  - didn't make it out of training camp

Draft Grade: D-

2014
Round    Player    Pos.    College
1    Khalil Mack    LB    Buffalo  - Franchise player
2    Derek Carr    QB    Fresno State - Franchise player
3    Gabe Jackson    G    Mississippi State - good starting guard. looks to be a ten year starter
4a.    Justin Ellis            DT    Louisiana Tech  - has been inconsistent. Has been apart of weak interior line. last year to prove himself
4b.    Keith McGill    CB    Utah - has been a lousy scholarship player. tweener is a bad way
7a.    TJ Carrie            CB    Ohio - decent depth player. Good value for 7th rounder
7b.    Shelby Harris    DE    Illinois State - never really showed he could make it in the NFL
7c.    Jonathan Dowling S    Western Kentucky - see above. cut for character concerns

Draft Grade: A plus  - those first two picks saved this franchise, and possibly Reggie. Gabe Jackson was also another great addition to the strength of the Raiders, offensive line

2015
Round    Player    Pos.    College
1    Amari Cooper    WR    Alabama   - looks to to have a breakout year. Already a star, but on the cusp of being a superstar. No brainer pick
2    Mario Edwards Jr.    DE    Florida State - look to be a beast early on. Concerns over his durability linger 
3    Clive Walford    TE    Miami - so far a flop. book isn't finished, needs to improve
4    Jon Feliciano    G    Miami - depth player
5a.    Ben Heeney    LB    Kansas- cut and out of the league
5b.    Neiron Ball    LB    Florida- see above
6    Max Valles    LB    Virginia- currently on practice squad
7a.    Anthony Morris    OL    Tennessee State- never showed he could play in the NFL
7b.    Andre Debose    WR    Florida- never stuck around in the NFL...injury issues
7c.    Dexter McDonald    CB    Kansas- still on roster but has made little to no impact

Draft Grade: C+... Amari Cooper really saves this draft picks.. Had great draft slots and plenty of picks.. More impact players would have been nice

2016
Round    Player    Pos.    College
1    Karl Joseph    S    West Virginia   - shows he can play in the NFL. aggressive against the run and in the box, but needs to work on coverage. Still super young
2    Jihad Ward    DE    Illinois  - looking like a bust
3    Shilique Calhoun    DE    Michigan State - looking like a bust... already cut and demoted to practice squad
4    Connor Cook    QB    Michigan State - looking like a flop... hasn't really grabbed the brass ring. Demoted to 3rd string player
5    DeAndré Washington    RB    Texas Tech- solid pick in the 5th round. Nice scat back
6    Cory James    LB    Colorado State - could develop into a decent weakside linebacker. this year will be big for him
7    Vadal Alexander    G    LSU - could possibly be a solid reserve. good value in the 7th

Draft grade- D....   Joseph coming back from injury, and this secondary needs him to be a force. Picks 2,3, and 4 are looking back... Could have really used  those picks on impact defenders.. 

Too soon to grade the 2017 NFL draft. Looking like a few rookies will be day one starts
MLB Lee
DT   Eddie Vanderdoes
and I'm sure Luani and Hester will be seeing the field alot this upcoming year. Raiders needs Conely and Obi to develop! 

What are your thoughts on Reggies drafting? as an overall GM? 

[Humble_Beast]

sorry.. don't know how to delete a duplicate post

[Jerry]

We went 12-4 last season.  I think he's a great GM.  I don't really have any issues with his picks.  There isn't a single team that hits on 100% of their picks or even 75% of their picks.  He has found key pieces every year through the draft and free agency.  He put together a top 6 offense in 5 years.  I don't recall us ever having a positive turnover ratio.  I don't recall free agents ever wanting to come to our team to actually win, they were typically chasing money.  I trust Reggie, I hope the guy works for us for the next 15 years and then hands the keys over to someone as capable as he is currently.  The guy put together a playoff caliber team, I have no complaints.

[reddevil]

3 hours ago, Jerry said:

We went 12-4 last season.  I think he's a great GM.  I don't really have any issues with his picks.  There isn't a single team that hits on 100% of their picks or even 75% of their picks.  He has found key pieces every year through the draft and free agency.  He put together a top 6 offense in 5 years.  I don't recall us ever having a positive turnover ratio.  I don't recall free agents ever wanting to come to our team to actually win, they were typically chasing money.  I trust Reggie, I hope the guy works for us for the next 15 years and then hands the keys over to someone as capable as he is currently.  The guy put together a playoff caliber team, I have no complaints.

 

Exactly this.

[daineraider]

I love Reggie as our GM, but have no problems pointing out some of his major faults either.  He has done an amazing job with the cap and getting guys signed to very good team friendly deals.  

His drafting outside of 2014 has been pretty poor.  2012 gets somewhat of a pass because of drafting position, but the picks we did have were pretty bad.  2013 was an awful draft.  We have 0 players on our team from that draft.  McGee was really the only solid pick out of all of them.  Obviously 2014 counts though and he hit that one out of the park.  2015 was a good draft because of Cooper.  Edwards was a good pick, but we need him to be able to stay on the field.  2016 Ward, Calhoun, and Cook were 3 pretty crappy rounds in row last year.  I still believe Joseph has a chance to be pretty good so I will count that as a good pick for now.  

And 2017 we obviously cant really debate too much yet, but I still feel like I will be pissed for a long time for him passing on Foster in round 1.  I really hope Conley helps me forget about him, but I just see Foster jumping in and looking like a younger Bowman, which we could use in the worst way on our team.

So overall I give Reggie a B+.  He has turned the team from the laughing stock to an actual competitor.  We would be favorites to win though if his drafting was even above average outside of 2014.  I will say I am happy to see a team that isnt just embarrassing to watch every week.  It makes football quite a bit more exciting.

[Darbsk]

I wouldn't give Reggie any criticism for the coaching hires when he first came in. We knew full well that this was going to be a complete teardown and rebuild and as such we probably knew that no coach with a decent resume and credentials would want to come in and go from 8-8 to a likely 3 or 4 win season (and be held accountable for that). What we did was take away the Broncos DC and give a young hopeful a shot to nothing. It didn't work out, but it was an incredibly long shot anyway until the franchise found it's feet again. It's no coincidence that once the franchise got back on its feet and starting building, a respected, experienced HC was brought in. Dennis Allen got his shot that he otherwise wouldn't have got, Reggie got his fall guy when the team necessarily floundered - neither really lost anything and if it had worked out better they would both have looked like geniuses. 

With regard to the draft, it's easy to be cynical and say that Reggie lucked into Mack and Carr but of course every other team had the chance to draft Carr and didn't, a few teams had the chance to draft Mack and didn't. It's awful easy to overthink the draft and get obsessed with value and trying to be the cleverest guy in the room but the real clever ones usually just make the obvious choices. Kudos to Reggie for doing just that. 

I think at the moment, Reggie is in the black and is above the mean draft wise. All teams have dodgy drafts now and then but I think the best teams make their first few rounds count and we've so far gotten Mack, Carr, Jackson, Cooper, as legitimate top tier talents with good projections for Edwards, Joseph, Vanderdoes, Conley and maybe a few others like James, Luani and Obi. Teams like the Browns and the last decade Raiders continually bust their 1st round picks and set themselves back as they try to develop players that are not going to make it. I don't think Reggie is the best drafter and sometimes tries to get the diamond in the rough like with the Ward, Cook and Watson picks - I can imagine Al picking those guys and that would be a criticism thus far. Overall though he's been great managing the cap, fostering a new team first culture and has hit on enough of the top picks and especially the two most important - pass rusher and franchise QB.

I'd grade him a B+ so far and just hope he doesn't try to go Al Davis too often in the draft - and live by his own stated mantra of picking good football players 

[Rolni]

Too early to grade the 2015 draft to me and way way too early for the 2016 draft.

Edwards, Walford, Joseph, Ward, Washington, James, Alexander still has the opportunity to prove Reggie right.

Overall I really like what he did for us so far.

The MLB spot is what makes me a bit frustrated, but nobody is perfect right?

[Nodisrespect]

We went from the least talented rosters in the league to top 5, pretty good. And he found us the ever elusive " Franchise QB" , yes lawd!!! ?

[CaliforniaKid7]

Yeah he hasn't been bullet proof but no GM is. He found us a franchise QB and an All Pro DE, he's hit on some UDFA's and is great with the cap. If some of his secondary picks (KJ, Obi, and Conley) don't work out I'll be a little irked but he's done enough for me. Go Reg!

[drfrey13]

I think RM has done a great job so far.  Now however is when he will truly earn his praise.  As far as drafting I think RM has 2 chinks in his armor.  First he is to susceptible to biting when he hears rumors about a team liking a player he wants. Second he wants to be the smartest guy in the room.  This has led to him reaching on players.  I would like to see him allow the draft to come to him and look for value moving forward.  I would like to give him credit for the 2014 draft but I can not because 75% of posters here would have done the same thing on draft day not using hindsight.  Saying he won that draft is like saying we beat the Bucs last year.  The one thing I wil give him credit for and that is chosing Mack over Carr.  That was his most difficult decision that day.

[drfrey13]

4 hours ago, Nodisrespect said:

We went from the least talented rosters in the league to top 5, pretty good. And he found us the ever elusive " Franchise QB" , yes lawd!!! ?

But he did not have to make a difficult decision when choosing him.  Carr fell to us.  It was him or Garoppolo and Garoppolo was not considered to be in the same class as Carr, Bridgewater, Manziel, and Bortles.  Now if Bridgewater and Manzeil were still on the board and he still chose Carr then I would say good job.  I think RM has done a great job based upon where we were and where we are now but some things he really does not need to be considered great for doing.  And without Carr we are a team that probably finishes last in the division.

[Nodisrespect]

If it was so easy than why didn't anyone else do it? The Raider haven't had a legit QB Franchise QB since Stabler that's like 30 years in the desert with few Oasis (Gannon,Campbell,Palmer).

Besides he doesn't do the drafting by himself he has help Clinksdales, and the other guys from GB are helping him.

I'm just saying drafting in general has a gamble element to it our 2 first picks are hurt and they were never hurt in college. I've seen too many teams pass on obvious choice Qbs to not give him credit and yes of course he got lucky but he took advantage of it.

[Nodisrespect]

And I'm pretty sure RM was a part of Aaron Rodgers pick too lol you know the one we're we picked Fabian Washington, I've seen too many obvious picks passed. ?

[drfrey13]

4 minutes ago, Nodisrespect said:

If it was so easy than why didn't anyone else do it? The Raider haven't had a legit QB Franchise QB since Stabler that's like 30 years in the desert with few Oasis (Gannon,Campbell,Palmer).

Besides he doesn't do the drafting by himself he has help Clinksdales, and the other guys from GB are helping him.

I'm just saying drafting in general has a gamble element to it our 2 first picks are hurt and they were never hurt in college. I've seen too many teams pass on obvious choice Qbs to not give him credit and yes of course he got lucky but he took advantage of it.

Everyone knew we needed a QB that year and that we were going to take one.  Out of all the QBs worthy of our selection Carr was the last one availible.  There was no desicion to be made.  Just about everyone knew Carr should be the pick.

[Nodisrespect]

I get what you're saying, bro I do.

But he had just signed Matt Schaub and Flynn was still on roster making good money. Other GMs might not have swallowed their pride on failed signings in the grand scheme he could have justified passing Carr, there were other picks with second round grades. Carr had a huge red flag with happy feet, it definitely wasn't guaranteed that he would be great, let's not act like Carr was a perfect prospect out of college and Downing deserves some credit along with Musgrave for protecting him when he was raw.