Oakland Raiders Owner Al Davis Dies an Underrated General Manager

Today, sadly, Al Davis died at the age of 82. There are plenty of nice things being said about him some of which are at profootballtalk but I want to take a moment to focus on his underrated drafting genuis. Al Davis has gotten al ot of knocks about his drafting ability because he only relies on Speed, or because he drafts a Kicker in the first round. But I think that’s an unfair reputation. I think over the past five to seven year Al Davis has actually been a very underrated general manager, with the lone exception of being able to secure a franchise Quarterback. I think the players on the Raiders that don’t play quarterback are actually really good. The Raiders with a quarterback even in the range of Matt Schuab/Josh Freeman would make the playoffs.

Now he’s also had some awful misses in the first round lately:

Darrius Heyward Bey (over Michael Crabtree, Jeremy Maclin, Hakeem Nicks, and Kenny Britt…all of who went in the first round). And Jamarcuss Russel, specifically have been clossal failures, and people focus on those picks more than any other. I think he has been much better, especially early in the draft than the media and us bloggers give him credit for dating back until 2003.

Let’s look at his otherfirst round picks going back to 2003.

Rolando McClain, Michael Huff, Fabian Washington, Nnadmi Asmougha, Robert Gallery, and of course Darren McFadden.

Rolando McClain has really looked sharp this year and even though he might never be a top ten player from this draft, it definitely was not a bad pick. McClain has underrated speed and coverage ability (11 passes defensed last year and the early part of this year). He is also making plays in the run game. This year he already has 30 tackles and a sack. Solid pick.

Michael Huff has been up and down, but last year he had 4 sacks and 3 interception so he’s out there making plays.

Fabian Washington is another solid pro.

Darren McFadden is a S-T-U-D from the running back position. He can do it all on the field and he does it all well, even though Michael Bush (another Davis pick) takes a lot of his carries.

Robert Gallery was not a franchise LT, but he’s a pro-bowl caliber Left Guard, not a bad pick. That’s not what you want from the number four overall pick (especially in a draft that still had Phillip Rivers, and Big Ben available…as well as Matt Schuab later), but Davis was not wrong about Gallery being a good pro.

Nnadmi Asmough was considered the second best cornerback in the league when he was with the Raiders.

That’s not bad at all. A lot of teams will have one or two busts in that same time period from the first round, even teams consider draft experts like the Ravens and Steelers.

David also had some very nice picks in other rounds of the draft. Tyvon Branch finally seems to be coming on strong. Stanford Routt, Zach Miller, Matt Shaughnessy, Thomas Howard, and Kirk Morrison were all picks that happened in the first three rounds that have made impacts with the Raiders (some have moved on). All were good draft picks.

Where Daivs struggled though was after the first three rounds where you can find few impact players still on the Raiders, maybe Jacoby Ford if he develops into that.

Unforutnately, recently, the team has not won a lot of games, but more so than his talent evaluator skills I think the problem lied in his inability to hire the right coach and to find the franchise quarterback.

In any case, today we remember the legend that is Al Davis for his glory in the past, and for the passion he still brought to the game. He will surely be missed.

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